The Travel Experience

Thought I´d do a quick update on how things are going and how I´m feeling about things. Barcelona was a great start to the trip, and it was good to have a few days in London. But now I´m here it feels like the adventure has really started. I´ve had a great few days, more of which is above.

I do wish I´d had time to learn some more Spanish - mine is less than basic, and I fell bad having to rely so much on other peoples English. Everyone who´s been here did tell me to get lessons, but I just didn´t have time. I´m thinking of taking an intensive lesson when I get to higher altitudes and need to just do nothing.

While working 70 / 80 hour weeks for the last six weeks or so meant I didn´t have time to plan a route, on the real plus side it´s made everything really flexible, and I really do feel like I can do whatever I want.

I´ve also found that I´ve really slowed down - I´m not rushing about so much, and am just taking things as they come. Which is fun.

I know that on a one or two week trip I´m probably the worst person to be with because I just want to see and do everything. But now I have the luxury of time, and even though I´ve slowed down a lot, I´m still getting to see what I want. I do feel incredibly relaxed. After the intensity of the past year it´s a complete change and I´m really enjoying it.

I´m not home sick, and I´m not suffering from culture shock (although as I write this I´m at a fairly high altitude and feel slightly stoned :-).

I´m sure that there are going to be some tough days - it all goes with the territory and is part of the experience - but so far everything is going great.

I do miss home a little - particularly The Dude - he has so much energy and life. I was chatting to Renee about The Dude after we saw a fair ride, and was saying how he´d love something like that - it´s moments like that when you really miss people.

All of my stuff is working out well - a lot of people have commented on how light I`m traveling and how small my bag is. The only thing I`m not sure about are the sport's sandals. They take up about 10% of the of the bag and weigh about 600grams, and I´ve not used them yet. I even bought some Jangles for dirty showers and to wear around the hostels. I might post them back from Oz - or give them away - but I always imagined walking around South East Asia in them so the jury is out at the moment.

Everything else is working great - I might buy a cheap T-shirt as it was cold at night in Lima and I´m heading to about 4000 meters - but I´m going to see what happens.

I´ve taken the book ahead strategy, using Hostel World. My plan was just to score places as I went along, but I might just continue with this approach - particularly as we run up to Christmas and the New Year.

Did a bit of sewing today - no major problems - just making sure a velcro fasten didn´t come loose on a pair of trousers. I´m also washing stuff on a regular basis - which is less of a chore than I thought it would be.

So - to sum it all up - I´m having fun - really relaxed - and excited about what´s ahead - particularly as I don´t know where I´ll be next week!

P.S. Thanks to Lindon for prompting me to write this.