C'est la Vie

Jun 29, 2008 23:24

 





Recently the travel bug has not only been biting, it has burrowed under my skin, laid eggs and spawned a thousand others that have proceeded to eat me away from the inside. It has been a wonderful experience in Colorado, but as I look abroad in search of perspective, I find that the greatest journey still lies ahead. The great journey that is the world.

It's out there. The unknown. Calling, beckoning, teasing... Adventure, culture, languages, history, art, foreign ways of being; finally I've decided to heed their call.

The other day I was watching The Heartbreak Kid with Ben Stiller and in it, his character vacations in Cabo, and after some events in the movie he ends up deciding "I'm tired of sitting around and waiting on life to happen to me" and moves there to open a business. Becomes a 'Perma-Vacationer' and has the quality of life that LIVING where the rest of us vacation provides.

This was the final catalyst needed to aid in my decision making about the tour of Europe I've wanted to (increasingly over the last few months) experience. I would ideally like to share this experience with a good friend, but sometimes life doesn't allow for those frivolous desires to become fulfilled, thus we must take what we can get!

Since I have a knack for the instantaneous planning of major life moves (LOL), I threw some ideas around and came to this masterpiece of a plan:

Departure (mid-April 2009) - Leave CO around the middle of march, get to Dallas and get rid of all unnecessary possessions and spent a LOT of time with Colby. Sell truck at some point to provide bulk of funding for trip. Spend quality time with family and friends (basically give everyone their fill LOL) before the big Bon Voyage. Gather supplies and resources and board one-way cruise ship from Miami to Dover, UK and see the ocean like I never have before by crossing it on the way to the greatest adventure ever!

Arrival (Late April 2009) - Get from Dover to London, begin the grand tour of the UK! Obtain a bicycle, preferably with a little pull-behind trailer and get mobile! See England, Scotland, Ireland, move east through the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Poland (it's in my ancestry you know haha), Germany, Czech Repub,  Hungary, Switzerland, GREECE! Haha Italy I plan to stay in for a bit, maybe learn the language and try to work on the DL, just for the fxck of it, same with France. I mean, who gets to fxcking LIVE in France and Italy? Totally... hehehe... and see Cirque du Soleil show on it's native soil! Spain I will more than likely spend a good deal of time in, learn the language and whatnot, it's a big place like France and Germany, besides, will want to be pretty fluent in the Spanish for the next part of the journey ; )

Departure from Europe to South America (October 2010) - As the European winter approaches, I find the best retreat to be south of the equator, back on my side of the Atlantic! Hitch a ride on a fishing boat, fly, cruise, swim (lol), I'm purposely leaving the transit between continents open at this point in the trip; I feel that getting back across Atlantic is an adventure waiting to happen, want to stay flexible on this and see what I come up with! Haha where's the fun in planning?

Arrival in South/Central America (Oct/Nov 2010) - Try to land in Brazil somewhere, see Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, make it over to the Carribean and see some of those beautiful islands... Then up through Panama and Costa Rica, Central America, and Mexico before returning to the (seemingly bland in comparison) States and catching hell for the rest of my life from everyone I know! LOL Sounds like good times to me!

That's the plan, anyway... Anybody got the itch? Let's go! Haha

It may seem a bit impulsive, a bit reckless, but like any other life-changing journey, it begins with a single step! Riding through the Alps on a bicycle may also seem a bit far out, and maybe it is, but opportunity waits for no one; I'll never accumulate the resources to see the world like i want to, thus it seems a trip like this is my only chance!

Hahaha I believe this trip is sure to satisfy my wanderlust, that is, IF I'm not killed by crazy Germans or Spaniards or Columbian druglords or fall off the side of a mountain! LOL it's funny because all of those are total possibilities, and I acknowledge it's a dangerous world out there, but my fear is one of stagnance. There would be no better death than one found in pursuit of adventure. That's real. 
 

freedom, travel, europe

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