Wed 9th Sep 2352 Booked for 5 nights in Riga early October. Much agonising over this over last few days. The primary motivation is to visit Samuel but this trip is also a semi-carefully calculated attempt to balance flight prices, the Ryanair bag pricing (I decided to go for the basic price with just an under-seat bag, and treat it in part as an experiment in travelling light for this style of trip) and not wanting to be away too long. £118 with half-decent flight times, the outbound leaves Stansted at 0825 but that is just about doable without too much pain via Stansted Express (and the alternative was to land a bit before midnight and navigate an unknown city and get to hostel and risk not being able to get in - plus this early flight means I'm much more likely to get the well-publicised bus from the airport into town instead of a taxi) and the return is a pretty comfortable 1655 so I'll have the morning there if I want it (at least I don't have to rush out of bed or to check out or pay for a taxi to the airport at 4am).
Thu 15th Sep 1929 Have done a test pack, not paying over-much attention to which travel tops I have taken (mostly the long sleeve lightweight ones I normally take, but not picking out "good" ones at this point). I'm preferring lightweight non-cotton travel clothes even though I don't intend to wash anything during this trip (so quick drying isn't relevant), because they're still probably lighter and less bulky. Warmth - I don't expect it to be that cold in Riga in early October compared to London - will be handled via fleece, wearing a pair of relatively substantial cotton jeans (which I just won't wash - I'll just take a lightweight travel pair as a second standby pair and maybe never wear them) and (should I need it) my lightweight shell jacket thing. I've got all this and a basic selection of toiletries and other minor supplies which is *probably* complete (except for a USB charger and if needed a Euro adapter) in the Bag Bag drawstring daypack. Including a 500ml bottle of water. The bag measures about 40x30x12cm and it's obviously pretty squishy, but even measuring as-is this ought to be well within Ryanair's limits. Its weighing in at 2.8-2.85kg, which seems fine, I don't think there's a formal limit anyway. It's full-ish but not crazily so, there's room to squash the fleece in the top without the bag utterly straining (I don't know about Ryanair dimensions at that point, but I can obviously wear the fleece onto the plane), so this feels reasonably promising even if there's still the USB charger and maybe a powerbank and maybe a packet of something like fruit/nuts to eat at the airport or to have with me for "I can't find anything/anywhere to eat" type problems when I'm over there.
Wed 16th Sep I dug out my old UK USB charger and a Euro-to-UK converter plug and have borrowed the UK-to-Euro converter plug from my Euro-spec Wii (a Christmas gift my parents acquired via someone when Wiis were brand new and relatively short supply) so I can do an adapter stack and test this charger and converter plug work. I'll leave it in use to charge the phone by my desk for a few days, but it all seems to work fine. Not worth the expense of buying a Euro USB charger for the amount of European travel I do, and the cheaper ones seem to be 5V 1A only which is likely fine but still, all else being equal nicer to have a 2A unit.
Tue 6th Oct I have been a bit slack about preparation (sort of not wanting to think about it) but have intermittently done stuff. I just installed the Ryanair app on the A06 and as guest (I don't *know* if I have an account just from booking, but if it's offering guest let's just pick that) can see my booking. I don't see anything obvious about uploading documents, I assume that shit will all happen from online checkin probably tomorrow morning when I also see I have been randomly allocated the shittiest seat ever and start to pre-stress. ;-)
Had some WA chat with Samuel yesterday, am both looking forward to the visit (seeing him and just maybe doing a bit of solo hostel chat and/or some solo sightseeing) and a bit stressed. Need to book travel to/from airport in London, unless price has soared since I looked the other day I will likely book the coach both ways, it is't that much worse and it's way cheaper.
I don't know if I noted this here - I did have some private notes - but I booked (paying extra, annoyingly) for a free cancellation dorm a few weeks ago and re-booked it to a non-cancellable slightly nicer dorm (cancelling the original booking) at the same hostel the other day. Nowhere at the cheap end was perfect but I found a place with "capsule"/"curtained" dorm beds which felt like a good compromise between being in a hostel environment and having some limited possibility of social interaction vs a cheap private room somewhere that might be more isolating.
I went over my travel tops etc the other day and washed them and the fleece and the underwear and the grey travel trousers from the January 2026 trip (the black ones had a broken zip on one pocket) and I think this should all be OK. Technically I don't need "travel" clothes because a) it's a colder place than usual b) I am not washing anything by hand, but the travel gear is likely lighter. I am wearing a normal "good night out in UK" pair of jeans for the trip and planning to wear them almost all the time, the travel trousers are just an emergency spare and thus lightness/compactness is valuable because of the constrained bag. I just might decide to mix in some regular socks/underwear instead of the travel ones, we'll see, but there is still an element of lightness/compactness.
Wed 7th Oct Feeling badly unprepared even though I'm not really. I have just checked on booking.com and my booking is stil there.
1339 OK, I just did the online check in and I have the bloody app with my digital boarding pass. It looks like I got a middle seat, it's fine, I deliberately resisted the upsell. I can always pay for a seat on the way back if I have a really torrid time of it, I don't expect it to be a massive deal (e.g. I didn't have an aisle seat on a short haul flight during 2024 trip IIRC) and if I just buckle now without any really strong reason to do so I would feel weak and I will keep having to worry about this when maybe I can save a lot of money and stress in future by accepting a small amount of discomfort now.
It's kind of weird, I just feel like I want to eat. I'm not saying I don't do comfort eating at all, but it's not generally something I think I do, and maybe it's not related to vague pre-trip jitters, but I really just feel like I could stuff myself with junk right now.
1356 OK, booked coach return. £21.50. Not too bad. Fingers crossed. It's an insanely early start whatever - I need to be at Liverpool St about 4am - but getting the train would have made negligible difference and this is a significant potential saving and worthwhile doing to help with any future trips too.
1404 I have printed some stuff out, technically not necessary but it makes me feel a bit safer against device loss etc. The booking.com site says I have paid, the PDF it generates does not. Looking at my credit card account online, I can see the payment there. £81.84 BTW.
I still feel a bit out of control, sure it's just the usual nerves.
FWIW the costs so far are:
£21.50 airport return coach
£117.98 return flight
£81.84 accommodation
So £221.32, plus spending money on buses/trains/admission/food/drink when I am there. We'll call it a 6 day trip (5 nights), so that's already a whisker under £37/day. Maybe £50/day with luck if the spending brings it to an arbitrary £300 total. I don't know how I feel about this. It isn't cheap, but it's not insane either.
1732 I have re-packed, albeit the non-clothes stuff is a bit "just what I packed before" and time permitting I will look later tonight. I bought 500g of mixed fruit and nuts as a snack for tomorrow and/or for during the trip if it gets that far. With that and perhaps slightly bad packing of some other stuff, the backpack feels a little bit bulgier and overfull, although obviously that and the water can/will be emptied out over time.
2200 It feels fucking crazy that I basically need to be *getting up* in 5 hours. I basically need to just accept that while I might lie down in bed, the chances of me getting to sleep are slim, and maybe it's not even a bad thing as I will maybe sleep on the bus or the plane, and I have no huge plans for Thursday so I can just wander round Riga and do some light touristing and try to find somewhere for dinner and maybe have a coffee and probably go to bed early and hopefully sleep like a log despite any first night weirdness etc.
2206 I feel my packing has been a bit slipshod but it's fine. I did put some moderate attention into the "pre-pack" last week or whenever and really as long as I have (which I should) money and I already have the basics like accomodation, flights, transport, clothes, it's not like it's a huge long trip to somewhere without facilities.
2215 I should probably vaguely try to move towards bed but I don't feel quite ready and it also feels a bit silly. FWIW I probably need to be leaving the flat about 0330 to be "safe", in reality 0340 would be fine but still.
Thu 15th Sep 1929 Have done a test pack, not paying over-much attention to which travel tops I have taken (mostly the long sleeve lightweight ones I normally take, but not picking out "good" ones at this point). I'm preferring lightweight non-cotton travel clothes even though I don't intend to wash anything during this trip (so quick drying isn't relevant), because they're still probably lighter and less bulky. Warmth - I don't expect it to be that cold in Riga in early October compared to London - will be handled via fleece, wearing a pair of relatively substantial cotton jeans (which I just won't wash - I'll just take a lightweight travel pair as a second standby pair and maybe never wear them) and (should I need it) my lightweight shell jacket thing. I've got all this and a basic selection of toiletries and other minor supplies which is *probably* complete (except for a USB charger and if needed a Euro adapter) in the Bag Bag drawstring daypack. Including a 500ml bottle of water. The bag measures about 40x30x12cm and it's obviously pretty squishy, but even measuring as-is this ought to be well within Ryanair's limits. Its weighing in at 2.8-2.85kg, which seems fine, I don't think there's a formal limit anyway. It's full-ish but not crazily so, there's room to squash the fleece in the top without the bag utterly straining (I don't know about Ryanair dimensions at that point, but I can obviously wear the fleece onto the plane), so this feels reasonably promising even if there's still the USB charger and maybe a powerbank and maybe a packet of something like fruit/nuts to eat at the airport or to have with me for "I can't find anything/anywhere to eat" type problems when I'm over there.
Wed 16th Sep I dug out my old UK USB charger and a Euro-to-UK converter plug and have borrowed the UK-to-Euro converter plug from my Euro-spec Wii (a Christmas gift my parents acquired via someone when Wiis were brand new and relatively short supply) so I can do an adapter stack and test this charger and converter plug work. I'll leave it in use to charge the phone by my desk for a few days, but it all seems to work fine. Not worth the expense of buying a Euro USB charger for the amount of European travel I do, and the cheaper ones seem to be 5V 1A only which is likely fine but still, all else being equal nicer to have a 2A unit.
Tue 6th Oct I have been a bit slack about preparation (sort of not wanting to think about it) but have intermittently done stuff. I just installed the Ryanair app on the A06 and as guest (I don't *know* if I have an account just from booking, but if it's offering guest let's just pick that) can see my booking. I don't see anything obvious about uploading documents, I assume that shit will all happen from online checkin probably tomorrow morning when I also see I have been randomly allocated the shittiest seat ever and start to pre-stress. ;-)
Had some WA chat with Samuel yesterday, am both looking forward to the visit (seeing him and just maybe doing a bit of solo hostel chat and/or some solo sightseeing) and a bit stressed. Need to book travel to/from airport in London, unless price has soared since I looked the other day I will likely book the coach both ways, it is't that much worse and it's way cheaper.
I don't know if I noted this here - I did have some private notes - but I booked (paying extra, annoyingly) for a free cancellation dorm a few weeks ago and re-booked it to a non-cancellable slightly nicer dorm (cancelling the original booking) at the same hostel the other day. Nowhere at the cheap end was perfect but I found a place with "capsule"/"curtained" dorm beds which felt like a good compromise between being in a hostel environment and having some limited possibility of social interaction vs a cheap private room somewhere that might be more isolating.
I went over my travel tops etc the other day and washed them and the fleece and the underwear and the grey travel trousers from the January 2026 trip (the black ones had a broken zip on one pocket) and I think this should all be OK. Technically I don't need "travel" clothes because a) it's a colder place than usual b) I am not washing anything by hand, but the travel gear is likely lighter. I am wearing a normal "good night out in UK" pair of jeans for the trip and planning to wear them almost all the time, the travel trousers are just an emergency spare and thus lightness/compactness is valuable because of the constrained bag. I just might decide to mix in some regular socks/underwear instead of the travel ones, we'll see, but there is still an element of lightness/compactness.
Wed 7th Oct Feeling badly unprepared even though I'm not really. I have just checked on booking.com and my booking is stil there.
1339 OK, I just did the online check in and I have the bloody app with my digital boarding pass. It looks like I got a middle seat, it's fine, I deliberately resisted the upsell. I can always pay for a seat on the way back if I have a really torrid time of it, I don't expect it to be a massive deal (e.g. I didn't have an aisle seat on a short haul flight during 2024 trip IIRC) and if I just buckle now without any really strong reason to do so I would feel weak and I will keep having to worry about this when maybe I can save a lot of money and stress in future by accepting a small amount of discomfort now.
It's kind of weird, I just feel like I want to eat. I'm not saying I don't do comfort eating at all, but it's not generally something I think I do, and maybe it's not related to vague pre-trip jitters, but I really just feel like I could stuff myself with junk right now.
1356 OK, booked coach return. £21.50. Not too bad. Fingers crossed. It's an insanely early start whatever - I need to be at Liverpool St about 4am - but getting the train would have made negligible difference and this is a significant potential saving and worthwhile doing to help with any future trips too.
1404 I have printed some stuff out, technically not necessary but it makes me feel a bit safer against device loss etc. The booking.com site says I have paid, the PDF it generates does not. Looking at my credit card account online, I can see the payment there. £81.84 BTW.
I still feel a bit out of control, sure it's just the usual nerves.
FWIW the costs so far are:
£21.50 airport return coach
£117.98 return flight
£81.84 accommodation
So £221.32, plus spending money on buses/trains/admission/food/drink when I am there. We'll call it a 6 day trip (5 nights), so that's already a whisker under £37/day. Maybe £50/day with luck if the spending brings it to an arbitrary £300 total. I don't know how I feel about this. It isn't cheap, but it's not insane either.
1732 I have re-packed, albeit the non-clothes stuff is a bit "just what I packed before" and time permitting I will look later tonight. I bought 500g of mixed fruit and nuts as a snack for tomorrow and/or for during the trip if it gets that far. With that and perhaps slightly bad packing of some other stuff, the backpack feels a little bit bulgier and overfull, although obviously that and the water can/will be emptied out over time.
2200 It feels fucking crazy that I basically need to be *getting up* in 5 hours. I basically need to just accept that while I might lie down in bed, the chances of me getting to sleep are slim, and maybe it's not even a bad thing as I will maybe sleep on the bus or the plane, and I have no huge plans for Thursday so I can just wander round Riga and do some light touristing and try to find somewhere for dinner and maybe have a coffee and probably go to bed early and hopefully sleep like a log despite any first night weirdness etc.
2206 I feel my packing has been a bit slipshod but it's fine. I did put some moderate attention into the "pre-pack" last week or whenever and really as long as I have (which I should) money and I already have the basics like accomodation, flights, transport, clothes, it's not like it's a huge long trip to somewhere without facilities.
2215 I should probably vaguely try to move towards bed but I don't feel quite ready and it also feels a bit silly. FWIW I probably need to be leaving the flat about 0330 to be "safe", in reality 0340 would be fine but still.
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