I’m just sitting in Gatwick departures lounge just waiting for my boarding information to be displayed while I comfortingly munch on some snacks. My mad travels have begun! Well… not quite the mad part of my mad travels, yet. My first 10 days or so are very tame and filled with seeing people on the other side of the pond I already know and love. Then a bit later on, staying with another friend down under who I met whilst solo travelling in Berlin. Also, to begin with as I ease myself into this adventure, I’m travelling to western, English speaking countries with various people I know here and there along the way. The second half is where it gets a bit mad.
Why mad? Well, I feel mad for doing it would probably be number one. I’ve never embarked on such an adventure. I’ve never travelled (literally moving from place to place) so much. I’ve never left the UK without knowing when I’m coming back. I’ve never been so far away from everyone I know for so long. I’ve also never left to travel without knowing where I’m going to be for the entire time (at least roughly) – come the beginning of October and I haven’t got a clue where in the world I’m going to be and as much as that is really exciting, it’s also pretty scary! I feel like I’ve been spending almost all of my free moments since I finished my degree back in May booking and planning my first month meticulously. However, I know that from now, I am just not going to have the same amount of time to work out where I want to go, the best ways to get there, booking shenanigans, and payment issues. I know that many people successfully dive into the unknown with travel adventure so I hope that it all works out for chaotic little old me. I currently have a 17.2kg backpack (I weighed it at 16.3kg… I’m convinced the airlines are messing with the weights) out of my (usually) allowed 20kg. Comparing that to my study abroad (I was away for about the same amount of time) where I had 2 giant bags, both of which were overweight, I feel like I’ve “forgotten” many many things (beside my nicely filled up water bottle for the car ride that I did actually forget… :/ stay tuned for further blog posts about more things I’ve forgotten). I’ve always notoriously over packed and been notoriously messy and disorganised with the most incredible amount of junk here and there so to spend 4 months living out of a backpack with just the essentials (yes, my 27 pens are definitely essential as what if they all run out and I’m somewhere in the world that doesn’t sell pens… :p ) is daunting! But hopefully my light backpack will allow me to buy at least 2kg of trinkets/general stuff along the way!
Onwards and in about 40 minutes, upwards to JFK!
Looking forward to the New Organised Jess ? x