Spain, France, Croatia Update
I’ve been off the grid for a while now. In Asia it meant I was having a really fun time but lately it has meant that I’ve grown used to traveling and what I’m doing doesn’t seem so novel anymore…it’s just my life.
As a short travel update…since my last post I spent some time in Prague, went back to Wurzburg for the weekend to be with Simon, got my Russian visa, decided to skip China (visa hassles), spent a week in Frankfurt, went to Koln for the weekend with Simon, then hopped on a plane and headed south to meet up with my friend Chris who I met in Laos a couple of months ago. Since we’ve been traveling together we have done Barcelona, Marseille, Nice, Monaco (Monte Carlo), and just arrived in Zadar, Croatia this morning (thanks Ryanair!) Future travel plans include a week here in Croatia, then back to Wurzburg to get ready for the next big adventure: Russia and Mongolia. Simon and I leave July 3rd for a month in the two counties from Moscow > Yekaterinburg > Novosibirsk > Irkutsk > Ulaanbataar (Mongolia) then we are headed back to Bangkok on July 31st. I’ve talked to a few Russians on my travels, and they have warned me to buckle up for some of the hardest days on the road.
I’ve also been reading a lot, like as much as I used to in college and high school, and it’s spurred a lot of thinking. Since this trip has started I have re read books 1-5 of King’s Dark Tower series and The Killing Fields, a book about the horrible atrocities that happened in Cambodia in the 70’s. This morning I started Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel. I first read the book in January of 2012 when I embarked on my first solo travel adventure to London and Dublin. I didn’t realize it then since I didn’t really know what it was like to be a LT solo traveler, but it’s basically a self-guide book on how to do it. Honestly, it’s kind of silly. If you need a self-guide book on how to do LT travel, you’re probably doing it wrong.
In the book, one of the main themes the author discusses about preparation for the trip is working to save money and planning out what you want to do on your trip, saying this process can help your trip more worthwhile because you know you worked hard for it. I think that is bullshit, for me personally.
As some friends have pointed out, I’ve always been the type of person to make really rash decisions, think the world is going to end if things don’t happen my way, and take things to the extreme. It may not be sensible, but as I look back, it has always been the way I’ve run my life: this PPTX had better be perfect or I am going to spend 10 hours tonight fixing it, I do Bikram Yoga because it pushes you to nearly passing out, if this vendor doesn’t call me back RIGHT FUCKING NOW with exactly the progress I want to hear in the format I requested - I’m going to lose it, I am moving to Denver on a whim without knowing anyone, and I woke up one morning and booked a ticket to Bangkok.
In the past month or so I’ve realized that I have been feeling a lot of guilt for the journey I’m on now, and I’m not sure why, but I’m trying to figure it out. I think most of it is based in the idea that a trip like this should be carefully planned, saved for, and dreamed about for years before taking the leap. Honestly the 6 weeks in Asia was supposed to be a vacation, but when I touched down back in Denver I had a borderline panic attack about being home and booked my next flight out that very same day to start this journey I’m on.
It’s most definitely not the way you’re “supposed” to do it, and I think that’s why I feel guilty. Like I am over-privileged for being able to book flights for free and keep on traveling. Like my 2 week firesale of all of my possessions should have been a painstaking year-long process. I need to remember I sold everything I own, live out of a backpack, take the cheapest form of transportation, and worked hard for 3 years in a job that was rewarding but not my ultimate goal - all to get to this point. Maybe if I write about it and purge it…I will stop feeling the guilt.
You know you meet people who live somewhere and say “I came here for a week vacation and I’m still here…4 years later”? That’s how I feel about traveling - I went out on the road for 6 weeks and when I landed back in America, the thought of staying was….impossible. So here I am, in Croatia, after sleeping in the airport all night to save on accommodation, taking 4 buses and a flight, because it’s what makes me happiest.
I’ve said it before, but being out here on the road is the best decision I’ve ever made.
On another note - as I continue to spend money like it’s going out of style here in Europe, I have been putting more thought into what I want to a) DO in my life and b) do to make money. Here are my thoughts on that:
1. Since I’ve been dating a guy whose first language isn’t English and enjoying and struggling through that - I am constantly reminded how much language connects us all. I’m extremely fortunate to speak the most common language out here in the world (yeah, yeah, I know about Mandarin, but when is the last time that you were in an international airport, not in China, and saw something in Mandarin?) and I want to spread that language. I’m thinking it makes more and more sense to teach English for a while, to spread the wealth.
2. I really love the island lifestyle, I’ve always enjoyed sharing my knowledge with others, and (not bragging) but I’ve always been a natural in water. I am going to really seriously explore options of getting my Divemaster down in the SEA (South East Asian) islands with the ultimate goal of working at a dive shop, living in a sleepy beach bungalow, and eating mango and phad thai for every meal.
3. I went to pretty poor high school and because of that I don’t know a lot about world history. Since spending the past month or so in Germany, I’ve learned a lot about WWII - more specifically about all of the human tragedy that occurred at the hands of other humans. I also just finished The Killing Fields (highly recommended). It terrifies me that there are so many stories throughout world history of humans being intolerable to humans. NORMAL humans being intolerable to NORMAL humans. Many of us like to categorize Hitler and his 3rd Reich as “monsters”, but read more - many of those people were regular people like you and me - in extraordinary circumstances. Most people don’t realize that large-scale mass torture, murder, rapes, etc. have occurred in our world since WWII. Because relatively few people know about these horrors, people aren’t getting the help they need to recover both physically and emotionally. I want to help. I don’t tactically know how, but I know it is in my future plans.
4. I know I’m not ready to slow down traveling and stay sedentary somewhere quite yet (likely sometime in 2015) but I also know that to keep my stress at a manageable level, a little bit of income would be beneficial. Freelancing, oDesk, and iFreelancer will likely be happening soon after I get back down to SEA.
5. I feel like I should do that weird “write a book” challenge.
If you want to know what it’s like to be out here on the road and the feelings that people feel - watch A Map for Saturday. I’ve shared it with a few fellow solo travelers, and everyone is amazed at how perfectly it sums up what we are doing.
Off Belay.