I’ve been awake since 4…

… which is a little unusual, given that I’ve not actually made it to bed until that time on several occasions of late.

This is my last blog post from Norn Iron. All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go, etc. etc. Except that they’re not, and I’m not, but sure. It’ll all come together any time now, I expect. Last night’s rather feeble attempt at sleep suggests that I’m going to be extremely tired for the next few days, but I’m already on my second cup of coffee of the day and it’s only 6.30am. No doubt the caffeine, suitably backed up by a large dose of adrenaline, will carry me through to my first destination.

Speaking of which. It feels decidedly strange to be heading off to a country I know next to nothing about. In fact, the only thing that sprung to mind when it was mentioned to me was “Eurovison Song Contest”. However, I feel that this is the way forward - leap into the unknown, visit all sorts of foreign places, and discover what’s out there beyond Ballymena. I am no longer afraid of “the unknown”. Well, actually, that’s a barefaced  lie - I’m utterly terrified. But in a delicious, excited, raring-to-go sort of way. Bring it on!

And so, the next time you hear from me will be when I become sufficiently awake to blog from Mystery Destination #1, following a ghastly middle-of-the-night flight involving a 2-hour jump forward in time. Much as I’d love to confuse you all by posting in the local language, I don’t think that’s likely to happen, as it is not one I’m at all familiar with. My passion for learning new languages means that I do, however, have my phrase book, so you can look forward to reading about enthusastic but terrible attempts to talk to the natives, resulting in me purchasing a small patch of land and several cows, when all I really wanted was a burger. It’ll be fun!

And I suspect that as long as I can say Ma vajan kohvi, everything will be just fine.