In ALBUQUERQUE Considering the Many Stages of Travel Planning
SEE THAT PURPLE LINE. THAT’S ME EXCEPT THE TRAIN GOES JUST NORTH OF KAZAKHSTAN.
There are many stages to making and implementing a travel plan. Idea. Excitement. Fear. Disbelief (that you’re contemplating this really dumb idea). More excitement. More fear. Deciding not to go. Deciding to go. Paying money. Waking up in the middle of the night worried about money. Waking up in the middle of the night worried about getting sick on the Trans-Siberian Express. Feeling the fear subside. Paying money. Fear Gone. Excitement Back. Wanting-to-skip-around-the-room-excitement—but it looks bad if you do that at work and my apartment is too small. Paying money. Paying money. Paying money.
I’m in the merrily-skipping-about stage right now. But there will be several more waves of fear, excitement and worry before the real travel begins. And a few moments of resigned numbness when I board that flight to Oslo.
UPDATE
The Big2015Trip has five main sections: Norway; To Russia/Russia; Trans-Siberian Train; Mongolia; Beijing/Seoul.
Next week the deed will be almost-irrevocably done.
- First payment to be made to RealRussia for all the train travel from Riga, Latvia to Beijing, China.
- First payment to be made to Mongolian Secret History Camp.
- First payment to be made to travel insurance place.
Meanwhile:
- Itinerary for two weeks in Norway nearly final.
- Final leg from Beijing to Seoul by train and ferry under consideration.
“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” (Robert Louis Stevenson)
Old photo, nothing’s changed.
Sounds like a great trip, I remember German film maker Wim Wenders had made a movie several years ago (sorry I forgot its title) which dealt about the process of traveling versus the end destination with its share of experiences, diversity of transportation means, people, landscapes, culinary try-outs, etc..and how one can get transformed by traveling across countries or continents….. And as photographer Gary Winogrand once wrote: “The world is a place I bought a ticket to”.
Gary Winogrand once wrote: “The world is a place I bought a ticket to”. Thanks Bernard. I will keep that. It’s perfect.
You are such an adventuresome person. Right now I hate the Russians, so would not want to interact with them. I would get into very deep trouble by wanting to have a political discussion which would get me thrown off the train at a desolate station, or thrown off the train while it is moving by Putin’s henchmen. Not pretty either way. But, you are such a seasoned traveler and you will do fine.
ooops…how awful, a public misspelling!
Who misspelled what? Surely not you nor me……….