So waiting for class to start, and of course what does my mind start to do? Go through the running list of places I want to go and things I want to see around the world. Apparently I like to live with my head in the clouds, which is totally fine until I trip and fall off the sidewalk because I wasn't paying attention, not that that happened... But someday, when I'm all old and wrinkled like a prune, I want to be able to look at photos of all of those places on my list and say yeah I took that one and yes I was there. Everyone always says to live life without regrets, and I think the biggest regret I could ever have it to not see the world and experience the wonderful things it has to offer. Now I know I may not like every place I go to, or enjoy everything I have to do to get there, bust hey life isn't perfect, shit happens, and I can deal with that. It's all worth it in the end.
So life kind of went as planned, and I got a job at the beginning of the month. Job means money, money means food and hydro. We like money. But money also means travelling. Somehow I have ended up having a million trips I want to go on just this winter with people, so if I want to be able to go on even one of those, this job needs to start soon. Don't you wish money trees actually existed? Travelling sure is expensive... first world problems right here. The thing is though that I don't really care if I stay in a hostel sharing a bunk room with 10 other people to save some money, or eat in a tiny hole in the wall place because it's all I can afford, because those are usually where you meet the best people and get the yummiest food. Don't get me wrong, 5 star hotels and restaurants and wonderful, but I want to experience the culture of places and live like I'm from there, and that's not how you do it. Another thing I've thought about a lot lately is who I would travel with. Tour groups are out of the question, been there and did that in France and it was terrible. 2 hours in the Louvre but 6 hours to shop? You've got to be kidding me. Art history nerd inside of me was so mad about that. Don't get me wrong, that trip was amazing, but I cannot handle having me entire trip planned out for me hour by hour and being forced to so some things and not having time to do others.
Travelling with a friend, or a small group, I think would probably be one of the best ways to go about it. That way you never end up alone in a bad situation or strange place, but you also have the company and the fun of people you know around. the problem though is if your travel personalities don't match, it's not going to be pretty. And that traveling with a group might stop you from making new friends wherever you go because you don't "need" to. For every pro there's always a con... which brings me to travelling alone. Now I know it can be very dangerous in some places, which is why some places I would only ever go with other people, but almost any first world country you go to you can get away with being by yourself, and I think that might be the way to go. You never have to change what you want to do to fit with other people, you can take as long or as short as you want in a single place, and you can alter your plans in a heartbeat without having to run it by people. That's one of my big things when I travel, I hate having everything planned out. I am totally fine flying into somewhere and maybe having a hotel booked for the first night when I fly in and then nothing after that. It's just a blank canvas for me to do anything, go anywhere or see whatever I want. And yeah it backfired sometimes and you end up driving until 3am because you can't find a hotel, but hey, it's an adventure. And I love adventures. Just incase that wasn't already clear. I'm pretty much willing to try everything once in life to see what it's all about, I mean you'll never truly know what you think about something until you experience it right.
The funny thing though is that as much as I hate having an entire trip planned out, my life right now is the complete opposite and if I want to travel somewhere I have to completely organize my schedule around it. I feel like I'm two different people sometimes, the super organized and time scheduled university student and the crazy adventure loving girl who just wants to see the world. Both lives are fun don't get me wrong, but I wish I could spend a little bit more time on adventure and a little less being a hermit student studying for 5 midterms in one week (not cool professors, not cool). So for now I can just look ahead at the travelling opportunities I have in the near future and that gets me through the crazy over-scheduled weeks now. More to come on these ramblings... I feel like this is a fairly productive way to procrastinate...even though that's an oxymoron. Oh well!
