Thursday, August 18, 2011

The Giant A

BEFORE (planned)
AFTER (executed)

So there I was in McIntyre building at McGill University, pissed at the circumstances, and finding myself needing to make a decision for my sanity, and fast. All I had was a round-trip ticket for Paris in two weeks, and ideas. Lots of stressful ideas. I finally made the decision then and there; I will hitchhike to the North of Norway by myself, disappear off the radar, and seek happiness! Yeah! What a fantastic idea, you little dreamer you. Just let go of everything you know, step outside the comfort zone (way outside), and plan to have an epiphany about your life and how to reach inner peace (because, of course, I plan when I will have an epiphany). And make it all look easy. None of my spontaneous, overly-optimistic, grandiose ideas ever usually materialise. 

But this one did...

Over the next few days, I struggled to prepare myself, mentally and materially, as much as I could for this...journey...while simultaneously juggling stressful amounts of work, interpersonal, and medical issues. O well. So I scrambled and traded the suitcase for a backpack (kudos to Liam for the holy bag), got lots of maps and helpful tips from Hitchwiki, and looked around on CouchSurfing for travel partners. I decided to attempt reaching the very North of Norway for the midsummer holiday, June 23rd, which meant about 11 days from the time I arrived in Paris. Then the plan was to come back South by Finland, and spend some time WWOOFing in Romania or chilling in other places. I called it "The Giant A" and was excited to attempt spelling out my initial on European land.

No matter what I did, I didn't feel ready for this at all. My first piece of advice if you are doubting whether you are prepared enough to embark on such an adventure; just go. You will never feel ready. How you feel doesn't matter. You are already prepared. Take a leap of faith, and everything else will be learned and gathered along the way.

8817 km of hitchhiking later (give or take a couple hundred kilometers of buses in Ukraine and a couple of ferries), I am still really quite a beginner at this kind of vagabond lifestyle, despite the mind-boggling amount I have learned and experienced. Sharp learning curve I guess :) Now back in Montreal for some months to finish my degree, I am already dreaming of roaming again, and of how I can improve my efficiency and maximise awesomeness in future travels. I could write a million stories and a million details of the things that I've seen and the places I've been, but I will attempt to recount here some of the more striking experiences. So here we go :)

1 comment:

  1. I'm very glad that you shared this. Your words really gave me a sense of the adventure you had. I hope you keep it up!

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