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Archive for March, 2006

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itinerary and world weather for dummies

Tuesday, March 28th, 2006

We have known where we were going to go for the most part for awhile. We just altered the end of our trek to fly into Dar es Salaam and then fly to Egypt, and are probably going to book at the very least the beginning legs of the trip shortly. Here it is…

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genesis

Monday, March 20th, 2006

The decision has been made.

I’ve been trying to come up with a legitimate explanation of why I enjoy travelling. Unfortunately after several months of thinking I have come to no conclusion; I have no explanation. I’m sure I could come up with all sorts of legitimate perks that I enjoy, but what it really comes down to is that for me at least, I just like it. It’s like falling in love. Sure there are lots of tangible explanations, benefits, and rewards, but you can’t (or at least I can’t), make myself fall in love. It just happens, it’s just there, and at some point if you are lucky, it becomes so much a part of your life that you wonder how you could live without it. I think travelling is a bit less trickier than that though, assuming you want to. It is at least for those of us who are lucky enough to have ended up in a position that they were able to garner an education and employment in a country where the exchange rate is exceptionally favorable to most other parts of the world. To us it is mostly a matter of choice. Do you want to do this or not? I want, a lot. There really are no obvious benefits to blowing all of your money on tramping about the world, but it sounds like heaven to me.

What brought me to the decision is slightly more expressable, in that I have firm memories of elation at particular times. The most recent I would say is sitting until 3:30 am in Cafe Homero in Buenos Aires, watching the Nicolas Ledesma quartet. The show went on for about 4 hours, and was amazing in so many ways. The dimly lit, smoky bar with less than fifty people, drinking the night away slowly in the form of Malbec. The most amazingly touching performances of tango, at least that I have seen (not saying much). Somewhere deep inside it strikes a chord. Why does that chord tell me to travel the world? I don’t know. Walking through Palermo Viejo with Cara, going for miles in the wrong direction (whoops) on the cobblestones, it’s great. Trips remind me of past trips. The impossibly green countryside of Ireland, and the picnic in front of the Eiffel Tower. There is so much to see, and so little time.

After Buenos Aires we had a strong whim to move down there, as the real estate and cost of living was fairly cheap. Unfortunately, while doable, there were still too many committments to leave the US behind indefinitely. After recounting our trips for the next month or two the travelust has continued, and in January we had a brilliant (to us anyhow) idea.

It’s not only that we would like to live in a different country, but before we do that we really wanted to travel the world. Part of the problem is the sinking feeling of settling down forever, which we are somewhat reluctant to do. Unfortunately, employers aren’t usually happy when you take 6 months to X off, and when you have a mortgage to pay it sadly does not pay itself. We could sell our place and take off, and then come back to an uncertain future. We are aware that things would probably work out well after a few months, but Cara and I are fans of stability to a certain extent, I think. The decision then, is to buy a house in Pittsburgh, quit our jobs, sell our condo, and travel around the world.

We could go on telling ourselves that someday we’ll do this, and that, and then we can do X and Y and Z. Carpe diem though. It’s time to take the time for us and do what we want. In a few months we’ll be off to truly see the world, and we’ll come back when we damn well please.

Posted in Inspiration | No Comments »