Gotta get out of Lagos

So, Lagos is gorgeous. Picturesque beaches, palm trees, perfect sunny days... it's awesome. But the mentality, I'm afraid, I've outgrown.

The hostel I'm staying at is quite partyartyarty and reminds me why I stopped going to frat parties. The girls are dressy in a way that no backpackers should be. The guys are just looking to score (mostly, there have been exceptions to both rules). They make silly rules like "get caught drinking with your left hand and you have to chug...". Bah. Now I feel like I'm 70 years old.

I think it's because there really isn't much to see in this city, so people just start drinking and don't stop. Don't get me wrong. I like to drink-but not to the exclusion of everything else. I like sightseeing and surf lessons, and good conversation, and random cities, and...yeah.

Anyway... off to Seville tomorrow. Good thing I have no hostel booked. Wish me luck...

Update

This blog now allows anyone to comment.

So comment away. Or not. Either way... enjoy.

Lessons from days 1 - 4

Don't worry, my writing won't always take such a twee format. I just feel like I've learned some stuff that absolutely must be passed on.

- Staying awake for 40 hours for a gigantic neverending going away party (thanks, guys!) will make you really, really sick, especially if you spend the next night on the train - transferring every 2h.
- Being sick alone in a hostel in Portugal (or anywhere) sucks
- Hostels with owners named Mama who make you soup makes this a bit more bearable.
- Ignoring the sick/surfing while sick will lead to...more sick.
- Check train schedules carefully to see where/how many times you'll be transferring...
- Also check to make sure busses run on the weekends.(Trapped in paradise for 2 more days? Damnit!)
- If you're reading a book about Nazis with a gigantic swastika on the cover, learn the local language for "I'm not a Nazi, just a history geek.."
- Little old men in McDs who sit and chat with you can actually be really interesting
- There's nothing better than a day on the beach reading and watching the waves
- Fighting the sand is a losing battle. It's better just to roll with it.

Bonus: Lessons from my going away party
- WATCH YOUR SHIT IN CLUBS!
- My coworkers give amazing gifts...
- I'll burst into tears for no real reason when overemotional/tired/homesick
- Leave on time or you'll wind up paying 50 quid for a cab to the airport....

Homesickness strikes

I landed in Portugal this morning, just before 9.

I really have no idea what to say, I think I must be in shock. All my friends are still there and I´m not. Meagan, Smalls, Tor, Votja, Alex, Alena, James, Chris, Mendes, Roberta, Owen, Mullet, Eloise, Henrique... they´ve become such familiar faces, I really have no idea what the heck to do without them. Especially Meagan.

The goodbyes were so wrenching (great, now I´m sitting in an internet cafe in Porto, Portugal with tears in my eyes). We went out dancing, and with 4 hours to liftoff I decided I´d better get moving. Yeah, shoulda done that sooner. Everyone had something extra sweet to say, and I was seriously contemplating missing my flight and catching a later one straight down to Lagos. Tor even offered to pay for a new one if I stayed, for reasons known only to him... I was so close to saying yes. What stopped me - I knew I´d have to go at one point and it´d be just as hard then. Plus, you can´t throw a gigantic going away party and then stay.

Anyway, 20 minutes later, Meagan and I were still hugging, saying how we´d be friends forever and see eachother again and we didn´t want to do this... we couldn´t let go. Finally Votja had to drag me away...at which point I realized I´d forgotten most my gifts with someone (Poppy?) in the bar. They gave me all these tshirts and cute underwear for travel. (By that I mean Meagan made me pick them out and the pretend to be surprised).

I guess I should be grateful that I forgot those and not the other half of my gift. They seriously blew me away with this. They bought me a journal, but not only that, they had everyone sign it. And the kicker, Owen drew an amazing likeness of myself dressed up in my Riley the Racoon suit (from a picture of my days as a hockey mascot. For some reason Tor found it hilarious and started calling me Racoon). It´s perfect. One of the nicest gifts anyone´s ever given me.

Anyway, I ended up in an unlicenced cab (not the wisest idea, but V took down his licenece number and made me text him when I got there safe), paying 50 quid because otherwise I was gonna miss my flight.

So this is what it feels like to have your life on your back. Heavy, and a bit bizarre. Is this really all I need to survive?
So this is what it feels like to leave it all behind again. Empty, I always forget how much I miss things, especially if I get out before I become jaded and cynical.

I know I need to do this. I know I´m gonna have the time of my life, and visit them all in 3 months and meet all sorts of amazing new people. I know this will fade and Iºll wonder what the big deal was. But today, after being surrounded by such amazing friends for so long, I just feel so damn alone.

Welcome to day 1.

One last post (maybe) before I go

At this time in 2 days I'll be in Portugal. Somewhere.

I decided to fly into Porto because both Mendes and Henrique, Portugese guys I worked with at the bar said it was a grand place to go. Mendes was even meant to be there at that time so I figured we could hang out and it'd ease the homesickness I'll be bound to feel for London.

Then Mendes changed jobs and couldn't get away. He and Rique both said they'd hook me up with relatives/friends/girlfriend's family to stay with, but you can never really count on that stuff. So, I booked myself into a hostel in Lagos, the south of Portugal for the following night. I figured I could wander around Porto for the day and take an overnight train south that night. There are no good hostels in Porto, and I didn't want to stay by myself on my first night away from London. Too depressing, really.

Anyway, I went out last night with some work folks, and who should be there but Mendes? And suddenly he's telling me how he's gonna make all these phone calls and get me places to stay. Nice, if I didn't already have a hostel booked. I suppose I'll just play it by ear.

Also last night: Meagan, my closest friend at the bar (we're kind of inseperable) showed me the gifts she bought on behalf of the bar for my going away do. The reason for this is twofold: One - she needed me to try shit on. And Two - She sucks ass at keeping a secret. Along with the clothes, she also bought me a journal. I remember in high school, the default gift for me was lipgloss. don't know what to get Dana? Get her lipgloss. Now it's apparently journals. Sarah, the woman I used to au-pair for bought me one, and now apparently I'm getting one from the bar too. Good thing I went out and bought myself a fresh one for my travels last week...

So now I have 3 brand new journals.

Last night was also notable because Smalls turned to me and said: want to see a match burn twice? I said sure... so he lit it, let it burn, blew it out and said "one". And then jammed it into my hand said said "two". Yeah, the jerk burned my hand! I think I'll have a scar. Well, at least I'll always remember him. But seriously, what kind of guy does that?

Less than 48 hours to go, friends.

Studenty discounts!

Thanks to the lovely bloke at STA travel for giving me a brand new ISIC (international student identity card). Technically I shouldn't have one at all, since I'm not a student, but someone made one for me while I was still working at Carleton and it got stolen in the great boob-grab wallet swipe of 2006.

Last time my wallet was stolen, I was annoyed because I lost my ISIC card too. But that was because a very charasmatic, charming guy made it for me. That and I was quite tanned in the picture.

Anyway, thanks random STA bloke! Now I'll get into museums and the like at a discount all across Europe! I'll think of you while culturing myself.

The Trip

In case you're wondering, here is a rough itinerary of my trip. I say rough because I fully intend to discover small towns, stay longer if I love somewhere and cut other places on a whim. And yes, I realize some of the math might fully add up. I've tried to leave extra days for rest, travel, staying later, but I've also got places where I know I'll have to cut some time from certain cities, and I won't know which until I'm there.

The approximate number of days are in brackets

The first chunk is May 23 - June 23 (so I can be up north for the midnight Sun festivals)Portugal
- Porto (1),
-Lagos (3)

Spain
- Seville (3),
- Granada (2)
- Madrid (5)
- Barcelona (3 - including a day trip to Andorra..I've already been there so I'm not giving it too much time..)

France
- Paris (3 - including a day trip to Versailles. I've already been there, so I'm moving on quickly)

Netherlands
- Amsterdam (3)

Chunk 2: June 24 - Aug 17
Sweden
-Stockholm (5, including a midnight sun cottage party just outside the city.)

Finland
-Helsinki (3)

Estonia
Talinn (2)

Latvia
-Riga (3)

Lithuania
-Vilnius (2)

Poland
- Warsaw (3)
- Krakow (4 - inclu a day trip to Auschwitz)

Czech Republic
- Cesky Krumlov (2)
..I've already seen Prague, in case you were wondering why I skipped that

Austria
- Vienna (4)

Slovakia
-Bratslava (4)

Hungary
- Budapest (5)

Bosnia (maybe..see how brave I'm feeling)
-Sarajevo (3)
-Mostar (2)

Croatia
- Dubronovik (4)
- Split (2)
- Random Islands (3)

Slovenia
-Lake Bled (2)
- Ljubjana, (3)

From here I'll fly RyanAir (providers of cheap flights and lousy service) to the UK.

Chunk 3: Aug 17 - Sept 15ish
-The UK (Either backpacking or working at my bar in London and crashing with a friend. Matt should also be making a grand arrival at one point during this month).

Chunk 4: September 15 - October 14

Germany
- Berlin (3)
-Munich (5 - OKTOBERFEST!!)

Italy *meeting my mom here*
Rome (7)
Florence (7)

Greece
Athens (7) *mom flies out at the end of here*

Chunk 5: The final leg. Oct 13 - Nov 30.. this bit isn't fully planned in any detail yet

Italy (yes, again)
-Venice
-Cinque Terre

Macedonia
-Skopje (to visit a friend)

Greece
-???

Israel (Nov 5 - 30ish). I may stop off in Turky or somewhere first... I have a long time on the trains to plan the rest of this.

280 pounds later...

I bought my Interrail pass today. It's currently sitting my my right leg, tucked inside a pint-sized Glamour magazine. Shuddup, it was free.

Interrail is the European version of Eurrail, for those who've resided her for more than 6 months. In essence, they're both passes that allow one to travel about Europe on their outstanding rail system. Well, I hear it's outstanding. I'll get back to you on that. Interrail is pretty complicated (annoying) in that you can only choose from the following -

1) 16 day, 1 zone pass (a zone is anywhere from 1 - 8ish countries, depending on the size)
2) 22 day, 2 zone pass
3) 1 month, all zone pass.

I went in to STA travel (the Victoria branch) with the intention of buying 2 all zone passes. One was for this month (May 24 - June 23) and the second was to be for whenever the hell I left the Baltic and arrived in Poland. The idea was flexibility. Yeah, notsomuch. He told me I needed to know the dates I'd be activating the passes (who plans that much ahead?!). I told him I'd buy my second pass in Stockholm. Or somewhere in Finland.

I thought I was rigidly planned. Apparently there are people out there who really do plan this stuff down to the second. The bloke behind the counter laughed at me and said he'd never had anyone have this issue before. But then he told me that most people he sells these tickets to "do" Europe in one month. Yeah. They spend one day in each city, hop on a night train, and go on to the next. Spending one day in each city seems like a waste to me. What can you do, other than dash about frantically? And what if it rains? What if you love it there and want to stay an extra day? What if you miss your train? I wouldn't want to lose out on this flexibility...

Here we go...

Well, less than a week until I start the trip of a lifetime (volume one - hopefully there'll be more to come). At this time in one week I'll be just landing in Porto, Portugal. I'll quite likely be hungover, and homesick for London, where I've spent the last 8 months working as an au pair and a bartender. But I'll also be ready to get this show on the road.

I'm really gonna miss it here. For a while, I considered staying. The boss at the bar I work at said he'd pay for the cost of my RyanAir flight if I stayed longer (sounds generous, but it was only 17 pounds...). I'd have a place to stay, a job offering me as many or few hours as I wanted. I'd have my friends here, some of the most fantastic people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. It'd be so easy to stay.

The problem is, I came here with the intention of traveling, and and I can't stay here just because it's become comfortable. That's what the rest of my life is for. This next 7 months are about getting out of my comfort zone and seeing what I can do.

I want to keep this blog for a few reasons.
1) The lovely Matt got it all set up for me and I don't want to let him down.
2) It's a great thing to look back on afterwards.
3) My friends back home can keep up to date on my life.

Live the Dream - Tor (my boss from the bar) uses this as a motto, so he'll likely think I swiped it from him. In reality, it came from the travel shop where I got all my travel accessories. It just seems like such a fitting motto. There's something so fantastically surreal about what I'm about to do. 7 months out of one backpack, everywhere from northern Sweden to southern Israel. I don't claim to be the only one doing it, it isn't unique by any stretch, but I'll make no apologies for the fact that I'm giddy about it. It's mine damnit. I'll be the only person doing it exactly this way.

So, with one week to go I give you my first official entry.
Live the dream.