Day 1 - Canada - Ultimate European - www.davechallenger.com

During the drive to Regina, I spent most of the time looking out the window at the vast Saskatchewan prairies. I thought about how long it would be until I would see them again. It just wouldn't sink in - in fact, nothing would sink in. I wasn't nervous, I wasn't excited - just sorta in shock. If I was truly going alone I might have been more nervous, but I had been pretty fortunate since I booked my tour back on January 12th. Contiki has a great message board on their web site where you can meet other people going on your tour. In the last four months I had met 19 of my soon-to-be tour mates. It was great being able to chat with them and get to know each other a bit beforehand. We went through all the pre-tour excitement together and had talked about everything from suitcases to KY Jelly. I was especially close to Ashley (Ontario), Andrea (Ontaro) and Tiana (British Columbia/California). We had four-way chats together almost every afternoon. A few months ago I decided that my first destination would be Dublin, Irealnd and it just so happened that another of my tourmates that I met on the net, Adam (Australia), would be in Dublin at the same time as me.

When we arrived in Regina my grandparents took my mom and I out for breakfast. This is where the lack of sleep started to hit me. I was starting to find it difficult to concentrate. While my grandparents were paying for breakfast, I went outside for a cigarette and had one last moment alone before purging myself into the craziness of airports and planes. I stood on the sidewalk outside the restaurant looking at the cars passing by in the familiar surroundings. For a split second, some part of me questioned what I was about to do. Why would I want to leave the safety and security of my home? Why would I want to venture off into the unknown? Why would I want to leave my loved ones worrying about me for the next three months? Like I said, it was only for a split second because another part of me answered, "This is who I am".

We drove to the airport and I hauled my huge suitcase out of the van. When I checked in at the Air Canada desk the ticket agent asked me where my final destination was. I answered, "Dublin, Ireland". Felt so good to say that. She ticketed my suitcase and I prayed that I'd see it again (I had some issues with disappearing luggage during a recent holiday to Cuba). She gave me two boarding passes - one from Regina to Toronto and another from Toronro to London. My flight from London to Dublin was with British Midland, so I'd have to check in with them once I arrived in London.

While waiting to go through security, my grandpa bought me a silver pocket watch and a CANADA t-shirt for my birthday (which was two days ago). I gave the watch to my mom to take home with her and shoved the t-shirt in my backpack. Little did I know, the t-shirt would come in handy later in the trip.

After saying goodbye to my family, I went through airport security and boarded my flight. This Regina-to-Toronto flight is almost routine for me. The majority of my family lives in Ontatio, incliding my father, brother and sister. I try to visit them twice per year, but I hadn't seen them yet this year since I was saving money for this trip. I was really hoping that I would fall asleep during the flight, but I have trouble sleeping on planes. The flight went well as usual... but no sleep.

As soon as I arrived in Toronto, my first stop was a lounge that I could smoke in. After a few minutes of searching and asking people, I finally found one. While I was having a smoke I enjoyed the very first beer of my holiday (there were many more to come). After being fully niccotined for my eight hour flight, and much more relaxed after a cold beer, I went to the boarding gate for my flight to London.

As I sat at the gate surrounded by the people on the same flight as me, I listened closely to the accents of some of the British people. It was cool to hear them talk - got me even more excited to start my adventure. By this time it was late in the evening on the 12th, and I had been awake for well over 24 hours. I could feel my sanity slowly slipping away, but the excitement was still keeping me awake. I wanted to sleep so badly on the flight - the only issue was if my mind would allow it.

I boarded the flight and got settled in. I have a fear of flying (or is it a fear of crashing?), therefore I always ask for a window seat. Being able to look outside always seems to relieve some of the tension. The only problem with window seats is that there's no leg room. I crawled into my seat and my eyes rolled back into my head when I realized that I'd be in this cramped little seat for the next eight hours. Apparently Airbus doesn't think people that are over six feet tall take airplane rides. After take-off I chatted with the guy sitting beside me. He was on his way to visit family that was living in the UK.

Although the flight was long, it wasn't too bad. Besides being cramped everything went very well and I arrived in London at 6:00 in the morning. The episodes of "Frasier" and "Everybody Loves Raymond" made time pass a bit quicker. In the entire eight hours, I didn't get a wink of sleep.