I am a month away from beginning my 7 months of travel. I am feeling…about 1,000 different things. First let me give you context for what the next month will look like. DeeDee and I are selling our house, buying a new one AND moving all before I leave on June 2. I am writing this sitting in Breckenridge, Colorado enjoying a long weekend away and wondering why the hell am I taking a long weekend away when we have so much to do. Oh yeah we also get to drive to Lawrence, KS to pick up the offspring after his first year at the University of Kansas. Work. There is also work. I need to prepare everything so all the people who will be working harder so I can gallivant around the world will be set up for success while I am gone. I am sure this is shocking but I am struggling to focus at work as well. So this month is going to be a whirlwind of excitement and stress.
So how do I feel? I feel excited, stressed, guilty, giddy, uncertain, grateful, scared out of my mind, joyous, satisfied, like I might be losing my mind and I am sure a few other things as well. That is a lot to hold and sometimes I feel like it all might just come out at once like when a star dies and forms a black hole…I know that is really dramatic, but I mean in terms of a metaphor I do think it is a winner.
Travel planning is both stressful and fun. I experience a great amount of satisfaction when I book a flight, a room or an activity. I also experience stress about whether I got the best price and whether I am maximizing my loyalty points. I am a novice travel hacker and I always have a nagging voice in the back of my head asking if I did it right. I mean, I am fortunate enough to be able to travel for 7 months so really how wrong can I get it. That being said the voice in my head telling me I screwed up is very strong and persistent.
I do know a few things about my trip so let me share them with you. I fly to Frankfurt Germany on Sunday June 2nd and arrive on the morning of June 3rd. I decided to use some Hilton Honors points and stay 3 nights in the Hilton Garden Inn that is connected to the airport. I have never been to Germany so why not explore. On June 6th I fly to Tirana, Albania and have an Airbnb booked until the 13th. My goal is to explore as much as I can. From June 13th-24th I was supposed to be working at a hostel in Sarande in exchange for free room and board. I found this using the Workaway site. This morning I found out that the workaway fell through so I have a week and a half to explore Albania. This was a good reminder that when travelling flexibility is important. I am bummed out but not discouraged. DeeDee and Jared will fly to Dubrovnik, Croatia on June 25th and we will spend some time exploring Croatia and then Greece. That is what I know for now and it seems like a enough. I have some planning done for Asia in the fall but that is another blog. Just a little spoiler to let you know I am doing a River Cruise in Myanmar with Kara & Nate (if you don’t know who they are go to YouTube right now and find out). Mostly I wanted to share that because there is still room on the cruise and I am sure YOU should join us.
So as Michael Stipe once said about the end of the world…this is the beginning of my new world and I feel fine!