On Travel: Pre-Trip

So, one insane week after coming back home, I’m off again! I would love to tell you how well planned these trips are, how organized I am, how much I know about my destinations, and how fabulous my itinerary is for the time that I’m in any of these countries that I get to visit. But the reality is really far from that! Here is a little bit of the “pre-trip” truth:

1)     I leave the country in less than 24 hours and I don’t have a visa! In fact, if put under pressure, I couldn’t even give you the specific location of my passport. Some magic fairy has it and I’m hoping that everything works out by the end of the day. I like to call this the “hope and a pray” strategy! As you may remember from this post, that strategy doesn’t always work!

2)      I came back last Saturday and have done nothing in my apartment other than crawl in late from work or time with friends and crashed. By “nothing” is literally mean my suitcase is unpacked, only just watered finicky, barely have any food in the fridge, and definitely no laundry. That I need to do half of those things in the next 24 hours is daunting at best.

3)      If you were to ask me five basic questions about my destination, I couldn’t answer ONE properly. Don’t know about the economy, government, social problems, main industries, zilch! And let’s not talk about knowing the history! In fact, I don’t even know all the fun things like yummy restaurants, cool museums, unique designers, or fun beaches. These are things that should stress me out, but I just haven’t had time to think through any of this stuff. PLUS with more than 24 hours of flying ahead of me, I’m going to be an (exhausted) expert by the time I land (or at least less ignorant)!

4)      As for an itinerary, that’s just one big laughing matter! The itinerary relies heavily on the “snowball effect” meaning that hopefully, one activity on Monday morning will lead to two more activities by Monday afternoon and even more on Tuesday. Yes, very exciting stuff!

With all this confusion and bottom-line uncertainty, one would think I would be more stressed out. Yet I kind of like these way of traveling. But having no time to plan, I have also had no time to build expectations, meaning everything will just be new and hopefully taken at face value....We'll see! 

 Can’t wait to share pictures and stories with you next week!

{Photo: SF Girl By Bay}