Trying To Avoid Chaos When Travelling

I’ve mentioned previously how “organised” I can be when travelling.

With each trip I seem to improve some things to the detriment of others.

This time round I have:

• booked the hotel (4 months in advance!!)
• booked flights
• booked hotel in Dublin for night before
• organised loads of meetings
• brought business cards home (ie. so they are close to my suitcase and won’t get forgotten)

I haven’t decided if I should lug my digital SLR with me or not, as my phone’s camera is more than adequate. However I will have to dig out the data cable that came with it or I’ll be “snookered” again. My little Sony camera is AWOL, since I “conveniently” forgot it in Cork. (Cue Homer Simpson style “doh!”)

Of course the downside to being semi-organised in advance is that you tend to misplace things like your hotel booking confirmation. I’m staying in the Meridien Montparnasse, which is part of the Starwood group. I only found this out when I spent 10 minutes frantically searching my email for the hotel booking details!

Oddly enough I was in Paris at the same time last year for my aunt’s wedding. Of course last year I also managed to get pick pocketed and end up with no cards or even the carpark ticket to retrieve my car! I’ve since learnt my lesson and now tend to leave a couple of my credit cards in the hotel safe. I also invested in an American Express card specifically to avail of their emergency replacement card service (they guarantee 24 hours!).

While I seem to have scheduled loads of meetings starting the afternoon I arrive, I still intend to get to the cinema at least once, so I’ve been perusing Allo Cine to see what’s on. As tends to happen some films are released in France months before Ireland, while others lag months and sometimes even years behind. I had been hoping to see Asterix, but at this stage it’s probably easier just to wait for the DVD release.

I suspect I’ll arrive in Paris to discover I’ve forgotten something really dumb yet essential, like my phone charger, as there’s no way that I can possibly be that organised!