Rodey on the Road

Alright kids, this morning my dad left the hotel room, we said goodbye and he was on his way home. I rolled over, went back to sleep till about 9:30, had a shower, got packed, brushed my teeth and so on, did a final look on the map, repacked all the stuff I had left under the bed, and at 10:36, I was out of the hotel on the streets of Paris-alone. It’s now quarter after 1, so I’ve been doing the solo traveling thing for almost 3 hours now, and as far as traveling goes, it’s alright. I got some pictures back today, very good looking ones some of them, some are not so good, I think I had a roomie in Galway take a picture of his ass, but hey, what can ya do, I would’ve done the same thing. So I’m searching for a hostel, and no luck so far, I have an address but according to my map of Paris, the street doesn’t exist, which is a problem I encountered while navigating through Normandy, so I know how to beat it. The plan for the day is to maybe leave this internet cafe, go to a real cafe, get some coffee (I’ve developed a taste for cafe noir, watch out for the timmys runs when I return home), go to a boulangerie, have a sit down, then try to find a place to stay for the night. Then I’m going to come back to Shakespeare and Co, a great little bookstore that I might have already mentioned, and just spend the day reading and snoozing. I bought two books a week ago or so, but I left them in my Dad’s suitcase, so they are probably at the airport in Germany right now, depending on what time his flights are at.

Plans for the upcoming week are solidifying, I’m going to be headed to Lyon tommorrow or the day after, then I’m going to go to Rome from there, up through Cinque Terra, back to the south of France for a bit before meeting Lydia in Neuchatel next weekend or sometime around there.

I won’t lie, at first I was a little scared as I was leaving the hotel, being on my own for a month now, but it’s also exciting. For the next month I am going to do exactly what I want to do, when I want to do it, and I don’t have to ask if its OK with anyone else, or take a vote or anything. By the same token, it’s going to be much quieter and I will have nobody to blame but myself when things get screwed up, but c’est la vie. I’m sure this upcoming month will be a period of a lot of soul searching, personal reflection, reading, writing and spending time in hostel bars meeting people if the financial situation goes according to plan.

On a side note, we are going to take a vote, anyone who has ever read this blog is invited to participate. I’ve decided that my bag is too heavy, so I want to dump some stuff. Here is a list of everything in my bag- you suggest what to toss, keeping in mind the weight of the object, how much I will need it in the upcoming month (late september/october in italy, france, switzerland, germany, czech republic and the netherlands) and the cost of replacing it once I return home (if it needs replacing).

-Two T-shirts
-1 Golf Shirt
-1 First Aid/Laundry/Sewing/Toothbrushing/Soaping Kit (I think this should stay)
-1 bottle of shower gel (probably tossing, but I just bought it)
-1 pack of cards
-1 toque
-1 nalgene bottle
-3 Bandanas
-1 pair of pants
-2 pairs of shorts (one shorts, one that are like flood pants deals)
-one rain jacket
-1 sweatshirt
-1 rugby shirt
-flip flops
-belt
-shoes
-three pairs of socks
-three pairs of underwear
-sunglasses
-cd player/cd’s (these stay no matter what)
-journal/pens
-eurail passes (these should probably stay)

So there you have it kids, my random assortment of junk brought and accumulated along the way. Thoughts, opinions, random comments not associated with anything mentioned before or above will be greatly appreciated as always. Until next time…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 20th, 2005 at 7:26 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.