Hmmmm. Well. Guess who just kind of spent the last week and a half and almost an entire savings accounts’ worth on plane tickets?
Oh, nah – that wasn’t me… or was it?
Unfortunately (and kind of fortunately), it’s true. This time last week, I wouldn’t have thought that I’d have planned out something so intricate, crazy, and fun for this summer: going on a three-week trip to Europe.
I’d known for some weeks now after coming back from Russia that I’d really wanted to go back abroad sometime over the summer again. And I told myself that I would do it somehow, even if I’d totally been unsure as to what to do and where to go. I’d spent a couple of weeks thinking of volunteer or intern opportunities that I could try to take part in abroad, but I realized that finding these opportunities took a lot of my energy, motivation, and confidence. Intern opportunities abroad come off as super competitive to me, and I wasn’t particularly interested in going to a particular developing country. And at this point in time, I’d really just wanted to travel abroad and visit some international friends of mine more than anything else. So in the end, I figured that I would just work again at IHOP for the majority of the summer, make some more money, and then travel on a trip at the very end of it.
My original travel plans revolved around my now long distance ex-boyfriend (but still good friend) Michael in Germany. We’d previously talked about how we’d spend 4-5 days in Germany together and travel around a little bit together, and then I’d maybe go to France or something too. Well, even though Michael and I are not together anymore, I’d still told him that I’d want to go and visit him. And he would love to still see me too, but he is just unsure of his summer plans at the moment and whether or not he will even be in Germany.
I didn’t think too much about this in particular at the time… until Wednesday morning of last week. It was Tuesday night (February 16th) that my Russian friend/previous host in Moscow (Stacy) had sent me a snapchat and told me about her plans to go to Spain for a couple of weeks in the summer with her best friend Mary. While driving the next morning to campus to get to class for the day, I thought about randomly asking Stacy if I could possibly meet up with her during her time in Spain since I’d still been planning stuff for Germany in the back of my mind. It was a few questions and conversations later that I’d truly decided that I wanted to go to Spain – especially since it’s a European country that I have never been to or seen before. And thus, it was this moment that I’d sort of done an entire 360 in modifying my summer travel plans: instead of basing it predominately around unforeseen plans, I would base it on this trip to Spain and Stacy’s traveling availability.
On Monday night (February 22nd), I finally and officially – after countless hours of numerous days and a number of headaches —I bought the last two tickets of my entire trip plan to Europe in late July and early August before the fall semester of school starts for me.
It feels super good to at least have a general, finalized plan for a trip that is 5 months down the road. I’ll plan on leaving first for Dusseldorf, Germany on July 18th and spending about 4 days total there with a German friend of mine who resides in Herne (about an hour from Dusseldorf). From Dusseldorf, I will fly to Lyon to visit and stay with my closest French friend/previous exchange classmate for the weekend. Then from Lyon, I’ll plan on going to Paris and spending one day there with (most likely) another previous exchange classmate. From Paris, it’ll be off to Alicante in Spain and I will meet Stacy and Mary in Torrevieja, the town in which they will be staying in for a couple of weeks. We will see Alicante at the very beginning of August, and then spend several days in Madrid. From Madrid, we will fly to Brussels and spend one day there, then spend another day in Bruges, and then we will set off for Amsterdam, which will be the last city that I will have time to see before I begin my fall semester at school again.
You could say that I’m just a liiiiiittle bit excited. Just a little.
Maybe the pit of my wallet and a small pit in my heart feel a bit guilty and empty now, but I know that come summer, I will be so happy and will have forgotten about how much I REALLY did spend on plane tickets alone. It’s all part of the fun and I know in my heart that everything will be soooo worth it.
Everyone has their priorities and their desires. I just often purposely intertwine mine :)
Only 142 days until take-off!! Until then, here's to Cloud 9 :)
Oh, nah – that wasn’t me… or was it?
Unfortunately (and kind of fortunately), it’s true. This time last week, I wouldn’t have thought that I’d have planned out something so intricate, crazy, and fun for this summer: going on a three-week trip to Europe.
I’d known for some weeks now after coming back from Russia that I’d really wanted to go back abroad sometime over the summer again. And I told myself that I would do it somehow, even if I’d totally been unsure as to what to do and where to go. I’d spent a couple of weeks thinking of volunteer or intern opportunities that I could try to take part in abroad, but I realized that finding these opportunities took a lot of my energy, motivation, and confidence. Intern opportunities abroad come off as super competitive to me, and I wasn’t particularly interested in going to a particular developing country. And at this point in time, I’d really just wanted to travel abroad and visit some international friends of mine more than anything else. So in the end, I figured that I would just work again at IHOP for the majority of the summer, make some more money, and then travel on a trip at the very end of it.
My original travel plans revolved around my now long distance ex-boyfriend (but still good friend) Michael in Germany. We’d previously talked about how we’d spend 4-5 days in Germany together and travel around a little bit together, and then I’d maybe go to France or something too. Well, even though Michael and I are not together anymore, I’d still told him that I’d want to go and visit him. And he would love to still see me too, but he is just unsure of his summer plans at the moment and whether or not he will even be in Germany.
I didn’t think too much about this in particular at the time… until Wednesday morning of last week. It was Tuesday night (February 16th) that my Russian friend/previous host in Moscow (Stacy) had sent me a snapchat and told me about her plans to go to Spain for a couple of weeks in the summer with her best friend Mary. While driving the next morning to campus to get to class for the day, I thought about randomly asking Stacy if I could possibly meet up with her during her time in Spain since I’d still been planning stuff for Germany in the back of my mind. It was a few questions and conversations later that I’d truly decided that I wanted to go to Spain – especially since it’s a European country that I have never been to or seen before. And thus, it was this moment that I’d sort of done an entire 360 in modifying my summer travel plans: instead of basing it predominately around unforeseen plans, I would base it on this trip to Spain and Stacy’s traveling availability.
On Monday night (February 22nd), I finally and officially – after countless hours of numerous days and a number of headaches —I bought the last two tickets of my entire trip plan to Europe in late July and early August before the fall semester of school starts for me.
It feels super good to at least have a general, finalized plan for a trip that is 5 months down the road. I’ll plan on leaving first for Dusseldorf, Germany on July 18th and spending about 4 days total there with a German friend of mine who resides in Herne (about an hour from Dusseldorf). From Dusseldorf, I will fly to Lyon to visit and stay with my closest French friend/previous exchange classmate for the weekend. Then from Lyon, I’ll plan on going to Paris and spending one day there with (most likely) another previous exchange classmate. From Paris, it’ll be off to Alicante in Spain and I will meet Stacy and Mary in Torrevieja, the town in which they will be staying in for a couple of weeks. We will see Alicante at the very beginning of August, and then spend several days in Madrid. From Madrid, we will fly to Brussels and spend one day there, then spend another day in Bruges, and then we will set off for Amsterdam, which will be the last city that I will have time to see before I begin my fall semester at school again.
You could say that I’m just a liiiiiittle bit excited. Just a little.
Maybe the pit of my wallet and a small pit in my heart feel a bit guilty and empty now, but I know that come summer, I will be so happy and will have forgotten about how much I REALLY did spend on plane tickets alone. It’s all part of the fun and I know in my heart that everything will be soooo worth it.
Everyone has their priorities and their desires. I just often purposely intertwine mine :)
Only 142 days until take-off!! Until then, here's to Cloud 9 :)