3/24/08,Yesterday, a good friend of mine asked me if I’d like to come with him on a trip to Manchester, UK. I had to think about it for a bit, because I did not have my passport and the plane tickets weren’t cheap either. After thinking on it for a few minutes, I accepted the offer and began working on a plan to get everything I needed in order to go on this adventure.
Passport:
- Fill out passport application online, and print it out to take to a local passport office
- Print out flight plan (using friend’s itinerary) for proof of travel dates
- Get lead’s OK on leaving for a couple of days
- Pick up official birth certificate (used as proof of identity)
- Get pictures taken (Fedex Kinko’s can do this for example) in correct passport format, without smiling. (This one was difficult, and asked if I had enough “not-smile” in my pic, to which the guy taking the pictures replied yes)
- Went to the local district courthouse and turned in the paperwork above in addition to my driver’s license.
- Pay expedited fee in order to get a quick turnaround on the passport, since it’s a month before I leave for Manchester.
This entire process took an hour from print to turn in. I’m extraordinarily excited since I don’t go on adventures like this, much less out of country! Luckily my friend I’m going with has experience in travel, so I’ll rely on him for a lot of the answers to questions I’m bound to ask along the way. Honestly, I’m scared to death. I’ve never traveled so far in my life, and I hope the relationship my friend and I have stays strong.
Should be fun!