EU1- Catch flights not feelings
the ticket is bought. ✌
The ticket for the first stop on what i'm calling my "reunion tour" has been purchased. I am both elated for my future and concerned for my present bank account. legit having heart palps. Realizing now that I do quite a bit of travel for someone who hates spending money. We can delve into the psychology of that later.
Everything in me wishes i had enough
computer talent to photoshop
myself hanging out of this plane but,
alas, i'm extremely computer skill deficient
PS: I just got a cold brew coffee for free so TRY AND STOP ME TODAY, WORLD!
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Yes, this does mean travel blogging is back!
I'm trying to think about how to start this blog but the only thoughts coming to mind are various screeching noises and omg's and holy crap's and i have so many things to do's and what will i wear's and i'm going to be so tired's and i'll probably get lost a million time's and i hope i can come back alive's and <--- case in point
I feel like there are so many aspects of this trip I could touch on but we will start with the main and most important one! the people!
For those of you who have read my Aussie blogs, you've probably already met (via the internet) these people. Honestly, the kindest and most sweet hearted beings that I can call life long friends after only spending 1/2 a year together. You really do get close to people when you live in a car with them while being sustained from a diet of canned tuna and carrot sticks for wayyyy too long ;) So, here it is...the reunion trip we had joked/hoped about for three years now is happening! woop woop fritattensoup!? ----> theres a blog, somewhere in here, with that title. {AUS14}
It (that phrase) stuck, and now three years have gone by and i still say it and i'm pretty sure it means woop woop pancakes or something but hey this is my life.
okay the barista dude just gave me a free scone too. Is it my birthday and I don't know? is it national give brooke free stuff day? i like it. Although, I feel like if he brings me anything else I'm somehow entering into a marriage contract tbh.
I've got just about all of my major travel flights/trains booked thus far and have already learned so many things about train trips/busses/flights/country distances/etc.
Y'all already know my organizational freak mind is on the move. I'm thinking i'm going to set up my bag as if i was my own mom sending me to summer camp with all these envelopes dated per day. They will have titles such as "open on May 20th If you want to get on this sketchy-cheap-a$$ plane and not be stuck on a glacier for the next who-knows-how-many days of your life" and it'll include pdfs of my tickets and maps of where i need to be and time tables and probably bible verses TBH.
speaking of packing... *INSERT FACE OF PANIC AND FEAR
^^jk that's old pre-anatomy brooke
I feel like post-MCanatomy brooke is so much more go with the flow and chill now. Like I swear i could raise children with this new outlook on life.
Oh suzy fell down the slide? rub your own ailments--> it'll release enkephalins #science.
Such and such made fun of you on the playground? people are dying in africa
Oh, you ended up in a foreign country without any belongings? buy a "we love amsterdam t-shirt" and a toothbrush. we gucci fam.
Go with the flow brooke also conflicts, however, with prepared-organized-brooke.
Since I'm doing all these cheap flights and bus trips and I won't have a home base of any sort for these 20ish days, I'm going to have to live out of a backpack.
Which is basically what do now, to be completely honest. I also have the luxury, however, of that house....ya know...with all my actual belongings...and the backpack is just books...which i won't be carrying...anywayssssss
So twenty days of clothes, toiletries, and goodies in a backpack. cool. I got this. Come at me bro.
In saying all of that, don't be concerned when i am wearing the same clothes in all of my pictures bc i for sure won't be💃
Let skip over to itinerary, shall we?
I'm going to be visiting (in no particular order):
Italy
Norway
Netherlands
Austria
Germany
I'll be totally transparent and say that the Norway stop scares me the most. I'm traditionally not very good with cold weather and, to me, that is basically as close to the north pole as i NEVER wanted to get😅. But my people are there and I need to see them. Plus, I'm all about the landscapes and boiiiiii do they have them! The running joke is that I'll pass out from the temperature drop as i exit the plane. Stay tuned to see if that actually happens.
Part of my travels has me taking a train between two cities in Norway for a trip that is described as one of the best rail journeys in the world.
**y'all are going to laugh but i'm legitimately doing hill sprints (yeah Mississippi has hills- i found one) twice a week to prepare for this journey. I remember all the Europeans casually hopping up those mountains (they called them hills but tbh they were mountains) in Australia and I was over on the side praying to the good Lord that an escalator would magically appear underneath me.**
BY THE WAY Y'ALL I need ideas/help! I'd really like to be able to carry an item with me that I can give to all my friends/hosts whilst I stay with them. It would have to be small of course and somehow representative of Louisiana or 'MERICA. If y'all have any ideas let me know! Originally, I wanted to carry around stuff for s'mores--> b/c that's just not a thing there. Not only do they just not make them but the available components are way off. I tried to create a s'mores experience once out the back of our car one night in Cairns and it was a TOTAL fail. those delicious honey maid gram crackers? yeah, not a thing over yonder. Marshmellows? get ready for those to be surprisingly strawberry flavored. And well, ya know hershey is from pennsylvania so the other chocolates (i think it was diary milk or diary maid or something) obvi doesn't melt as well. Anyways, these people need s'mores in their life. Shipping all that crap in a box to 8 countries is like uber duper expensive though. Ugh, maybe when i'm 83 and finally pay off my student loans i'll be able to do that for them. <-- apparent thought tangent
OOPS! hope none of them are reading this or there goes that surprise!
PS i'm certain they all actually do read this. The decided upon surprise, however, won't be posted here. Still allowing for some mystery, yeah?
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Before y'all start sending me places and things I need to see--> I'm not making any strides to see anything specific. Rather, I'm just going to hop on a plane/train and see where my day-to-day takes me within these beautiful countries! This is the form of travel I enjoy. I'd so much rather that than forcing myself to see any certain "must see" or getting stressed over seeing a top rated tourist attraction and, henceforth, losing an entire day of experiences.
It's an amazing way to travel. I've learned that it's really the people you meet and the casual events that make the trip memorable. No need to go the huge locations just to get that ONE PICTURE. Surely, I'll go to a few of the big name places and attractions but, overall, i'm more interested in the subtleties of the cultures. If you were have a list of things to see and don't end up getting to them, don't you think that'd be setting yourself up for disappointment and unnecessary stress? I'd rather come in with zero expectations so that every experience is a new and unexpected one :)
**goes off on tangent about how much I absolutely love surprises. Which is funny for someone who is as thought out and planner-focused as I am in my day-to-day🙈 (another psychoanalytic thing we can delve into later).
So travel time for me is the time for surprises.
Take me some where and don't tell me where.
Point to a menu and eat whatever comes back (unless it contains olives then just point to something else).
Meet new people and have new conversations.
Don't be stuck in the culture of where you were raised.
See how other people live and appreciate our differences.
It is all so amazing and eye-opening.
I'm so **#%*@#$@ pumped for this.
I enjoy the challenges it gives me AKA forces me to be an autonomous adult and figure things out on my own. I enjoy that it humbles me. I enjoy that it teaches me to not worry about the little things. I enjoy the new people I meet and seeing the nuances in how other people live in different parts of the world. I enjoy my feeble attempts at assimilation. And I enjoy, more than anything, do I enjoy drinking the coffee from all over.
P.S.
I am going to have a viennese coffee.
In.
Vienna.
Vienna.
pinch.
me.
now.
LETS.
FREAKIN.
GEAUX.
3/12/18