When I told my parents I was going to travel around Europe for two months they asked me where i was going and what I was going to see. I told them I didn’t know, I’ll make those decisions when i get there. “But how?” they exclaimed, “You have to have a plan!”. My parents have been to Europe two or three times now, and to the United States once, each time the day to day itinerary, down to hotel reservations and car rentals are spelled out months before they even pack their bags. To me, such structure leaves no room for change, it leaves no room for unexpected, be that good or otherwise to occur. While such holidays are good for those not wanting to be met with unexpected issues while overseas, or those on shorter travels where time is a luxury, it’s no necessarily what I’m looking for, I’m not going to Europe for a holiday. I’m not going to Europe to see the sights, to climb the Eiffel Tower, see the coliseum or walk through Amsterdam’s red light district. While these things will most likely happen the journey isn’t centred on these things. I’m going on an adventure, you don’t plan an adventure with an itinerary.
What a lot of people aren’t willing do anymore is have an adventure, a real adventure. Most people work their nine to five jobs dreaming of it, however most are afraid to step to far from their comfort zones, to leave everything they know and trust behind and see how far they can really go. I consider my adventure to be reasonably small, to travel from Paris, to Sweden, to the Czech Republic and then to Spain and back to Paris again in two months, it’s good for a first time i think. A guy I use to work with has already done all the small stuff and has moved into the big league, he is nine months into a bike trek from Italy to Vietnam, last I heard he was in China somewhere.
At the time of posting this there is currently 17 days till I leave, I didn’t realise the time would go so damn fast....
