There are 21 days before we leave the UK for seven months, a number which seems to be jumping down in huge amounts whenever I blink. You’d think, having booked this trip in January, we’d be well prepared by now and have a super specific itinerary planned out. We haven’t.
Out of the 180 days we’re away we’ve maybe booked accommodation for four nights and there’s a vague spreadsheet knocking around with a loose plan for around 10% of the trip. Even typing that out is making my breath shorter and my heart rate increase.
So why haven’t we planned more? Well there’s multiple reasons for that which include one of us being too busy and the other being too distracted. We’ve also read a lot about travelling and it seems to really experience an area you need take your time and be open to changes in your itinerary. We’re going to take a risk and book as we go along, planning larger slots when we find ourselves with an alright internet connection or time to kill. Technically we’ll have time to kill for seven months, but let’s not kid ourselves into thinking it’ll all be lazy afternoons wondering where to go next, especially as we’re starting in India.
Right now I’m caught between a million emotions and the only thing I can compare it to is when I left home to move to Leeds for university. There were similarities to this situation in that we’re moving away from home for a long period of time to surround ourselves with strangers and do things we’ve never done before. This time though there’s no student loan coming in and we can’t jump on a two hour train home whenever we feel homesick. The emotions feel similar though. Sort of an excited panic where I’m torn between the lazy comfort of my own bedroom, surrounded by my precious stuff, and the excitement of experiencing new and amazing things in places I can’t even imagine.
Travel has always been something that I’ve wanted to do but for some reason I’ve done very little of it so far. I’ve never been further East than Berlin, or further West than San Francisco and the total countries I’ve visited might not even be over 11 or 12. I’m about to double that, plus more, in one trip. There really won’t be enough time to properly experience these places to be honest, but it’s our taster of the world which will hopefully spark something in us which keeps us going to new places.
Yes I’m rambling now but it’s my blog and I can freak out and post whatever I like, thank you very much.
Packing up your life for a bit is weird too. As a freelancer I’m having to turn down jobs and close off all my current projects, as well as notify anyone who might need me that I might not have a very good response rate soon. Who knows how I’m going to chase invoices if they know I actually won’t be around for a while, but everyone I’m currently working with is lovely so fingers crossed. I even changed my LinkedIn profile to say I’m on a sabbatical. What a weirdo.
So there you have it. My pre-trip thoughts in the very real final days before the journey begins. Who knows what Mark’s thinking, though we do keep sending each other messages which basically read, “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” He’s probably having similar feelings as I am.
Here’s hoping I read this back in six months and have a smug chuckle to myself about how silly it all seems.