Hello travel blog! Its been so long since I last wrote in you; a shame really. So much has happened and I need you to relax, have a cup of tea (its Egypt after all), and let me fill in the gaps in our collective experience.
It's been about 2 years since my trip to Central America. What a good time that was... I had my first solo travel experience, met so many fun and interesting people, and enjoyed the company of Sam and her family for the last couple weeks. Thinking back on it, it was the first hint at what what would become a minor obsession for me... getting back out on the road. Finally this year opportunity presented itself for me to chase that dragon once more. I think that I trembled a bit when it dawned on me that I had the time to take 6+ months off to persue this, but that was also because I was fired and it was a traumatic 30 seconds before this new plan dropped into my head. From then on it was a lot of hard work preparing for my aimless pilgrimage towards cheap kicks and also alot of heartbreak saying goodbye for now to my dear friends, coworkers, family, and to Samantha. I've been out a week so far (I'll get to that in a bit) but there is not a day that goes by that I don't fondly think of her, them, and all the great living that the lot of us enjoyed together for the last few years. LA has been very good to me and even though I tell so many Egyptians that I'm Canadian, I'm proud to be a Californian.
So then, that's all the sentimental stuff. I have more but I'll spare you the details. Let me now get into the tedious logistics of going on the road by ones self for 6+ months. I had to take care of paperwork, pick a destination, gather essential supplies, and say farewell to everyone I know (the hardest part). For the paperwork I got visas, inoculations against disease, a guide book, opened new checking accounts with favorable international ATM fees, dealt with taxes, and insured myself and my non operational car. That took quite a while to do, but picking the destination to start at was no cake walk either. My goal was to travel cheap, to go places that would run me into other wayward young folk, and that would make the most of the weather. In the end I decided that if I started in Egypt it would be warm enough that I would not need heavy clothes and that I could go north with the creeping spring weather, and would have me go through a variety of cheap locales such as Jordan, Syria, Turkey, and Greece. After that summer will be upon Europe and I can decide what would be interesting and affordable. After that I could decide to summer in Eastern Europe and then in the Fall go to Asia, Australia, or anywhere else that sounds nice... assuming I don't get bored and wander home to replenish funds and relationships.
Packing a bag that you'll want to carry for a long time is no easy task. I don't want to devolve to listing everything, but I basically have enough clothes to last a week before laundering, have some reasonable entertainment (ipod and books), many toiletries including a years supply of contact lenses, and my ukulele. The last item there is a tad heavy but it reminds me of home, gives me something to work at and kill time waiting for buses and what not, and is a great conversation piece. After carrying all that fora week I've come to the conclusion that I took a few too many things but I'll just post them home tomorrow. No worries.
Saying goodbye has never been so hard to do. I love my friends in LA and felt like I had a good group of people that I could call on for any flavor of activity that I had in mind and I felt like I had an important function in their lives as an organizer and trusted ally. Hopefully I can drop back into that in the future and be happy with how it all turned out. Samantha is a more difficult problem for me to handle. I love that girl and her family but relationships are hard work and I wonder how I'll feel about us when I get home. I've found that since we parted I miss her dearly and wonder what's really best to do about it. Regardless, I'm gone for a long time, don't have the means to make something satisfying work at long distance and am of the experimental nature that says we should take some time apart from each other and see what we think when I return in the unforeseen future. I hope that she can enjoy the single life with pent up vigor and that she still thinks of me from time to time. Finally,saying goodbye to family was not as difficult as the rest because I know that they'll always be there for me and because my sister wants to come out and visit where ever I am in a couple months. That'll be great, and it would be a lot of fun too if her bf Rob could make it too... he's a amicable guy. I also got to stop by the homes of several relatives to reconnect before I left... I only wish that I had the time to see more of them. It was a pretty frantic rush to get on the road.
So that's the build up... let me get on to what's happened in the last week since I arrived in fabulous Egypt!
1 comment:
She still thinks of you.
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