Vagabonding begins!

Finally, from the foggy depths of my mind, a loose plan for my Europe and North Africa adventure has come into being. Of course, someone once said, the best way to blow your travel plans is to make them. I much prefer to keep things loose and go where the wind blows, like I did in Southeast Asia, but on this trip I will be staying mostly with friends. I figured it would be slightly courteous to let them know when I would be knocking on their door with red eyes and begging a couch to slobber on.

So, here we go:

Kentucky -> Dublin, Ireland. in Ireland I will be staying in Dublin, Waterford, Cork, and Tralee for 10 days.

Ireland -> London (2 night stopover) -> Stockholm, Sweden. I’ll spend a week playing with the former-vikings there.

Sweden -> Frankfurt, Germany. I will train down to Konstanz on the lake, meet up with a friend, then we are going to backpack around Germany for a week or maybe more?

Germany -> Brussles, Belgium -> Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. I’ll be just outside Amsterdam for about a week.

Netherlands -> Morocco -> Egypt. I plan to spend the month of October, maybe more, split between Morocco and Egypt. They are both somewhat cheap and warm. Between Chicago and Alaska, I’ve been cold enough this year. Egypt has some of the best scuba diving in the world, so that will probably keep me occupied for a couple weeks at least. Woohoo - life is goooooood!

No, not the cool coffee shop in Palmer, Alaska.
(http://public.fotki.com/bucho-ky/2006/alaska/pics/dscn1347.html)

I’m talking about the new low of being home after such a high as traveling.

My muscles quiver and ache, thirsting to absorb some type of adrenaline. I toss and turn at night, I haven’t had a proper night of sleep since I got home, sometimes prompting me to stay in bed until after noon. Why get up earlier? I know what lies waiting for me right outside my door, unlike when I am someplace new.

It is unfortunate, but I am not nearly as excited about this Europe trip as I should be. My trip is less than 3 weeks away and I havent even nailed down an itenerary yet. Sure, I am thrilled about seeing my friends I met on the road, I miss them dearly. However, something in my gut is telling me that this is not right. I havent asked the first question about my Europe plans in the forums on Boots-n-all, I have barely opened my huge Lonely Planet “Europe on a shoestring”, it sits collecting dust, and all that I can think about is being someplace cheap and exotic again. Don’t get me wrong, Europe is full of culture, history, sights, and loads of craic and fun are waiting for me in the pubs I am sure. However, so are the enormous, exchange rate-boosted tabs.

I think I crave ambient danger.

I miss diving shipwrecks with nitrogen narcosis. I miss snorkeling with reef sharks. I miss eating unidentified meats on a stick and playing bacteria-roulette at street BBQs. I miss dancing around landmines on 1000 year old temple ruins. I miss dancing until sunrise and sharing sweat with strangers from all over the planet.

Hell, in Bangkok 36 people die a day from traffic accidents….its a thrill just riding a motorcycle from point A to point B! (http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/501040809/story.html)

Can I get the same feeling from traveling around Europe? With the inflation and current exchange rate, will I get enough aventure-bang-for-my-buck? I am having second thoughts. This is going to be an interesting week as I do some soul searching and decide on my next destination.

Wow - I've heard that West coast jetlag is the worst because its not extreme like Europe or Asia, and it sneaks up on your body. I guess that makes Alaska's 4 hour difference the reason why the last 2 ... [Continue reading this entry]

I actually managed to catch my flight the second time around and so as my plane flew over the dark gray mountains and milky, pure white glaciers of Alaska, my heart was a stew of emotions - sad for leaving ... [Continue reading this entry]

With a bloated 16KG backpack on the scale and an itenerary in hand, the Delta representative at the check-in counter chuckled and told me that I had missed my flight by 2 hours. They had failed to email me a new ... [Continue reading this entry]

I'm not sure which of us saw the giant brown shape on the trail just up ahead, but we both gasped in horror.... My friend ... [Continue reading this entry]

I gave my "Sawasdee Khrap" and wai gesture greeting with my palms together raised slightly higher for respect of his position, to the Thai monk. I've done this to monks LOTS of times. I've never done this to a monk here ... [Continue reading this entry]

The dry erase sign at the head of the trail read "brown bear sighted - 1/4 mile on trail". I walked down the trail a bit and after realizing that the thick cover which formed walls on each side of the ... [Continue reading this entry]

I knew the boulder that I was standing on, despite its huge size, was completely unstable. I was right, and as I held on to the handhold in front ... [Continue reading this entry]

We decided to spend a couple nights in the small community of Homer, Alaska. Its cool (40 - 50F) and very foggy, so my Kentucky body that left 93F has no idea what is ... [Continue reading this entry]