A series of questions?

(Apologies for the reposting....I apparently deleted my two posts. I stink at blogging.)

As the excitement mounts, the stress increases. I am still in a state of disbelief that two weeks today I will be heading on this fantastic trip. I began planning (i.e. choosing dates, booking tickets, tours, and transportation) in January and back then, I felt as though I had all the time in the world. I did a decent job of overcoming my procrastinating habits and forcing myself to remain on top of things, but now my head is spinning out of control. Every day I think of another loose end that needs to be dealt with or a detail that months ago seemed minor and now is a little more pressing. As a result, I am finding myself lying in bed at night pondering the many variables and unanswered questions....

Will I remember all of my power cords and chargers? For my phone? For my GPSr? For my camera? For my batteries?
Can we manage to get back to Moscow from Saint Petersburg on the train? How am I going to book this ticket when I speak no Russian and have no idea about the Cyrillic alphabet?
Will I really get arrested just like Kim seems to think I will? :-)
How scary are the Russian police? Will I end up on "Locked Up Abroad"? (Thanks Alia for planting that seed in my head....)
How will I ever manage to pull off my conference presentation (i.e. the main point of this trip) at 3pm when I arrive in Belfast at 5am after travelling all night?
How much cash do I need? How will I manage the currency-cluster this trip is turning into (Euros, Pounds, Rubles, Lira)?
Will this trip convert me to vodka?
Will I be able to eat everything Baris has planned for us to eat in Instanbul?

And, rather than staying at home, putting my nose to the grindstone, and figuring out these answers, I find myself sitting in Altoona, PA, in my sister's backyard...blogging. Clearly this visit was well-timed. :-) (In fact, maybe it was, considering I've managed to get more thesising done here in the past two days than during the past two weeks in Ottawa. Oh, and the air conditioning is so nice (not to mention my lovely hosts).....this was a good idea after all.)

Yesterday's feat was reserving a taxi from the airport in Moscow to my hostel...one more thing of the list (and another $60 well spent). I think it's time to make a list and prioritize. Let's just hope my head doesn't explode in the process. :-)

TTFN