On the eve of my departure for 22 days of European Adventure I’d like to reflect a bit. First off I’m so freaking excited about leaving. It’s like I’ve been let free from a cage. I’ve felt so listless in life since the summer. But when I got my job at Dunkin I felt better but still wanted to do something more. Then I decided to go to Europe and suddenly I had something worth looking forward too and I’ve been so excited about it. Now my trip is upon me. I’m packed and my plans are made. Check out my map of fun!
I’m so excited to be striking out on my own again. And when I get home… well that’s another post for later. But I doubt I’ll be feeling listless when I get back, I’ll be too busy. SO the moral of the story. I probably won’t be posting till I get back later in January. So Happy New Years to all! This song popped in my head as I was writing this post so here it is. This is for my mum. Thanks for never holding me back in life!
Since I leave in four days I figured I should pack… so today I packed. Now packing for this trip was interesting. You see I’m flying Ryanair, a discount airline. This means that I’ve only got one carry on, my backpack. And said carry on can only weigh 10 Kilos (about 23 pounds). I’ll be gone for 22 days and need to pack everything I need into my pack. Can this be done? Of course! Here’s everything I wanted to pack.
And my small items.
What’s my packing list? Cell phone Camera Nook Chargers Converter Roll up flats Brita water bottle Tissues Mini first aid kit Goddess cards Shampoo Conditioner Body wash Pen Journal Toothbrush Toothpaste Deodorant Q-Tips Mini Flashlight Lint roller Tape Face lotion Lotion Bar Makeup A tip for chargers. You see I’ve got three chargers I need along.
And they would each have taken up a lot of room but lucky for me they all have a USB chord so I only needed one USB hub to accommodate all of them and saved room.
See! Now onto the clothes. I’ll be gone nearly a month and I’m happy I’m one of those girls where life isn’t a fashion show. If it was I’m sure I’d be screwed trying to backpack. Instead of good looking clothes I went for clothes I could layer.
My packing list for clothes is thus: Pants- 3 (1 jean, 1 yoga type pants, 1 leggings) Shirts- 7 (3 long sleeves, 3 tanks, 1 sleep shirt/ long sleeve) Sleep pants Underwear- 8 Bras- 2 Scarf Buff Rain Jacket Long Sleeve light weight jacket Travel dress Leg Warmers Socks- 4 pairs So I organized them into to categories…
you must be thinking how is that all going to fit? Well last week I went to EMS and bought a lovely thing called a compression sack!! It’s the red thing huddled in the top right of the first picture of my clothes. So I piled all my clothes in, and my wash cloth and mini towel and bed sack. And sinced it down! Tada!!
My phone is there so you get a size reference. Needless to say I’m so excited that it gets so small. And it fits lovely in the bottom of my pack and everything ellse packs in easily on top and there’s still room to spare. Plus check out the scale!
UNDER WEIGHT!!!! Huzzah! More souvenir shopping for me! Now I’m even more excited about going. And I’ve been talking to my hosts to get an idea of the weather and how warmly I should pack (very in some cases). It seems almost surreal to think that I’m leaving soon. Now with Ryanair you’ve got to check in and print your boarding pass before you get to the airport. So today I went online to print my first one from Ana’s house to Barcelona to meet Lenka. So I breezed right through sure that I had it right and had double checked it all… then I took a look at my boarding pass
What’s wrong here? Well for starters I’m not from Uruguay. So tomorrow I’ve got to get up early and call the help line and get it fixed all proper like. We’ll see how it goes. Wish me luck! Oh I nearly forgot... we're also in the middle of a snow storm. It better clear up before I leave!
It’s come to my attention that people of the human race find my adventure in January to be something that should never be attempted. After all I’m a young female and travelling alone should never be attempted. Further more couch surfing is an invitation to get raped and killed. Am I right? To some people yes. To me I say don’t be ridiculous. After all it must be hard to imagine doing something exciting from that little comfort zone of yours. You see the looks on people’s faces says more then enough when I tell them I’m backpacking alone for 22 days through 4 countries and sleeping on strangers couches. It’s as if they don’t think I’m competent enough to do it. As if I’m too weak to accomplish it. I understand that the world isn’t a lovely peachy perfect place but the same dangers exist here in the United States that exist in every other country. I don’t mean to sound flippant about my life but so what if I get kidnapped? So what if I find my self in a fatal position? Would you rather die close to home doing the same thing day in day out or would you rather be chasing a dream and living life outside of society’s expectations? Would you rather blend in with the crowd or stand out? I mean think about it… sure it would be tragic but if I ran into trouble while abroad I would make the front page. Where as if I met the same fate here at home I’d simply be a statistic. I’ve never liked blending in with the crowd. I was always that weird girl that did what she wanted and got made fun of a lot. So why would I stop now? Seriously what fun is it to be a statistic? To quote my favourite book, to a well organized mind death is but the next great adventure. I find something about dying slightly intoxicating and exhilarating. I’m not going to go looking for it. I’ll avoid it for as long as I can. I’ll fight for my last breath. But at the same time I’ve lived more them most people ever will. I’ve travelled the world. Done things that very few can ever say they did. I don’t fear my tomorrows even if my tomorrows end with the next sunset. If you’re one of those people who balks at me for planning my trip and think it’s weird that I find death something pleasant then perhaps you should hold your judgment. I’m sorry that you fear dying. You should live a little more instead of trying to convince me that I need to live less. I will never stop living on the edge of wonderful exhilaration till I’m dead…. Obviously. I refuse to settle down. Having a family will only encourage me. I want my kids to see what I’ve seen. Do what I’ve done. I won’t stop my travels simply because I’ve got a child to look after. I’ll continue to book tickets and go places and I’ll take my children with me. I’ll keep doing crazy things till it‘s impossible. I’ll take those looks of disbelief you all give me and store them away for a time when I need encouragement. You see when people say I’m crazy or I’m asking for trouble it makes me want to do it even more. I want to prove them all wrong and show everyone that it’s okay for a young female to travel alone and love it. I want to show young women that we can do whatever we want. There’s no need to seek other’s approval. If you approve that’s enough. If you’re comfortable with doing something then do it. Don’t let someone else tell you how to live your life. Just live. You wouldn’t let someone else tell you when you can and can’t breathe. So why have someone tell you where you can and can’t go? To those of you who agree with me that January is going to be a fun month… I don't need to say much as our brains work in sync. So thank you. I enjoy having like minded people in my life. Thank you for believing in me and supporting me. I won’t let you down.
Well the time draws near… my departure… it seems I’ve neglected to inform you all properly that I’ll be going back to Europe. You see I’ve been planning this trip since about October. It’s gone through a lot of changes but I’ve finally got a solid itinerary…. Where do you ask am I going? Madrid for New Years Then to visit my Spanish Sister In Murcia Then to visit my Czech housemate who’s working in Barcelona Next I’m off to Budapest And Brussels (to see my favourite picture ever!!) Last is a mini Italy tour, I’ll be seeing Pisa, Lucca, Florence and Rome. 9 cities in 22 days! You’re thinking it’s going to cost me an arm and a leg right? Wrong. I’m spending a little over $1800. How is this possible?! I spent a month and a half looking for tickets over. I only spent $875 on my round trip ticket to Madrid. That’s the most expensive ticket I bought. My next most expnsive ticket I bought was my flight from Rome to Madrid to catch my flight home.. It was a whopping $60 including tax and everything. Everything else was under $40. Whoot! Thank you Ryanair. But anyone who’s flown Ryanair knows the 10kilo curse!! It’s way too expensive to check a bag on Ryanair, seriously I’m not going to pay like $45 dollars every flight to travel with extra shit. So I’m backpacking. I’ll have everything I need in my backpack and make it weigh less then 10 kilos (aka 22 pounds). How is this going to be possible? Easy peasy… maybe. I’ve gotten a lot of cool new gear to go with me so I’m really excited to try it out and see if they’re really as good as they seem. But the gear shall be for another blog… aka I don’t have pictures right now and am too lazt/ tired to go take some. I’m also able to travel cheap because I’m couch surfing. I’ve heard some great stories about it but never had the chance to try it out yet. So here’s the perfect time!! I can’t wait to stay with locals and have an inside view of cities and get to know more then just the tourist perspective. Plus I’m hoping I can pick my host’s brains about stuff. I’m really excited for this trip and it’s going to be hard waiting 8 days to leave!! Let the count down begin!! Cheers,
