In a few days, we are departing for 19 days in Europe. We will be spending time at a few different places in France, doing a week in Belgium and doing two overnights just across the border of Netherlands. This trip was originally scheduled to last a month, have us visiting four countries and include three Formula 1 races, but a few things changed since we dreamed it up 1.5 years ago. Among those reasons most important are 1) me getting laid off at the beginning of the year, 2) a reduction in the amount of vacation time I get with my new job and 3) Melissa working part-time and heading back to school. As it is now, the main highlights include time in Paris and Brussels, a private tour of the beaches of Normandy and the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.
When it comes to traveling, we generally try and push ourselves to do and see things we haven’t previously. This really serves no purpose other than to get us out of our comfort zones. I realized in Japan that some of the best experiences in life are when you don’t feel all cozy and comfy, so it’s something I’d like to continue. At first glance, visiting mainland Europe doesn’t seem that far of a stretch (would you believe I’ve never been?) but there are a few things that make this trip stand out in comparison.
- We will be backpacking. It won’t be backpacking in the sense of traipsing through the wilderness, but we will be changing cities every few days, staying in hostels and carrying everything in a single backpack. With our many travels in Japan, it was clear that normal suitcases were a huge impedance to moving about. I don’t want my stuff to bog me down and backpacks will help combat that. Consider that this is the longest trip we’ve ever been on (by nearly a week) and you have the makings of complications. Of course many people do a lot more with a lot less, so I’m sure we’ll be fine.
- This will be the first trip, other than maybe a long weekend somewhere close, that we will not have a computer. It’s no secret that I not only love technology but like to be prepared, so I’ve always had a computer with me to “research” whatever comes up. Given the lightweight and unplugged nature of the trip, I’ve decided to embrace just how unnecessary they are. We’ll still be reachable by cell phone in case of emergency, but internet access will be reduced to smart phone over wifi… if at all.
- We are going to meet strangers. Over time, we’ve learned the best way to see a place and understand its culture is to hang out with locals. This contributed to the success of trips like Japan and England, so we’re gonna try it again. How do you find locals willing to meet up in a place you’ve never been? I’d previously heard a lot of great things about the travel community site Couch Surfing, and this was the perfect opportunity to make use of it. It could all go very wrong, especially since I’m not the most open person in the world, but we’ll see.
- Not every minute is planned. The things that required pre-booking, like trains, the Normandy Tour and the F1 race were accounted for, but there are large sections of the trip where we have no idea what we’re going to do. My priorities consist of drinking beer in Belgium, eating in France and… well… that’s about it. I just want to relax and recharge so I haven’t spent much time thinking about what happens in-between. Anyone who knows me, knows this is very unlike me.
I am taking two different cameras, both of which shoot HD video, so I’m sure I’ll have a lot of things for you to see when we get back. I have this strange suspicion I’m going to shoot a lot, so I fully expect it take weeks to go through everything. I’m sure I’ll also be posting a clip video, several galleries over at Dirty Martini Photography and maybe even our GPS-mapped track, so I’ll be busy for awhile. I’m not going to think about all of that now but instead focus on packing and Friday’s sunny/73° forecast for Paris. See you in September!
Sounds like a great time… Enjoy! Can’t wait to see the trip report.
Thanks. The yellow thing in the picture is actually a journal. I can’t remember ever writing something like that with pen and paper. 🙂
I did that once… Took so long to transcribe, I never finished… Yeah, Japan.
I think I’m going to use it to take notes of references and stuff I don’t want to forget, then create blog entries from those notes.
I wrote pages upon pages (in Word) of minute detail in full sentences for our Baltic trip and it ends up getting monotonous/boring after awhile. I adopted bullets (in Word) for Japan and I think the results are much easier to read and far more meaningful.
http://chris.derecola.com/tag/baltics/page/2/ vs. http://chris.derecola.com/tag/japan/page/2/
I’ve read Japan a half dozen times since I wrote it. The Baltics, maybe once.