A walkabout is a rite of passage- a person will go out into the wilderness to discover his or her identity and purpose, and then return home.

Friday, May 31, 2013

Homestretch

I. Have. Five. Days. Left.

Holy shit. [ <-- excuse the French]

My time in Nice (and Cannes) and Barcelona was really fun. Full of sun, beach time, cool people, and magical fountains. Plus, I snuck into the VIP section of the Cannes Film Fest and felt super badass. But you'll have to ask me about that in person.... I'm currently in the beach town of Tossa De Mar (north of Barcelona), just relaxing and soaking up some rays for the majority of my last week abroad. It's extra easy to enjoy being a beach bum when you know you have to hit the ground running with work literally four days after you get back home. Le sigh. Real life can be such a slap in the face.

But really? From eight months (!) to less than one week. How did this happen? Where did my gap year/walkabout/year abroad go??

I'm sure there's a similar feeling for those of you who just finished (or are finishing, Anri) your academic year. Especially if it was your freshman year of college. Yet your endings may have had a bit more jubilation and relief attached to them, whereas my thoughts about finishing up are sort of... conflicted.

On the one hand, I'm SO ready to be home. I want to see my family and friends. I'm ready to return to the familiarity and comfort of STP. And by all means give me some free, home-cooked meals, my own room and bed to sleep in, and access to a washer and dryer 24/7. Honestly, for stretches of days at a time within the past few weeks it feels like all I've done is count the days, hours, minutes until my plane arrives back in MN. At certain points recently I've just lost the will to travel: I don't want to walk around new cities, I don't want to pay for museums, I don't want to meet new friends I'll just say goodbye to a few days later, I don't want to take advantage of my legal drinking age, just get me HOME.

...But on the other side of that equation- I don't want to stop traveling. Returning home means going back to having parents [whom I love! But nevertheless it'll retract a bit of my complete independence], to beginning jobs and having responsibilities, to doing chores, to sinking back into "real life." No more exploring large, new, foreign cities at night with a crew of other travelers; no more "playing tourist" in the hopes of riding the metro for free; no more recounting travel tales without feeling like I'm bragging, and no longer will my biggest problem be whether or not the sun will stay out long enough for me to get five hours of beach time in instead of four....

As I've been discussing with other travelers recently, being away from your normal routine for an extended period of time is always an amazing, surreal experience. Yet once you get back, sure there's some culture shock or whatever, but soon enough you've settled back into your old ways of life, and you think to yourself "Did I actually do that? Was I really drinking Long Island iced teas in the south of France only one month ago?" It's depressing. I don't want to believe an experience like this- and especially one so [dare I say it?] life-changing- could just fade into a fond, dreamlike memory.

Because I can honestly say that this year- this decision to embark on a year abroad- has been the best thing I've ever done. I've learned so much about myself, about being self-sufficient, about how life really IS what you make of it. I've met incredible, fun, inspiring people, people who became my best friends for days, weeks, and months. I've had amazing, new experiences. I've seen beautiful, historic, breathtaking places. I [pretty much] skipped winter. I caught up a bit on my sleep debt. Traveling has lots of pros :)

I really did this by myself- was on my own, completely independent. And I've certainly grown from that. Maybe in ways that are apparent, maybe not. One thing I am sure of, though, is that I am NOT that same little, unworldly, sheltered girl who stepped naïvely onto a plane bound for Costa Rica last September.

No fucking way.

I'll see y'all soon!

xoxo, Cleome

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Big City Livin'

As I sit here in Paris, I have (slightly) less than three weeks of backpacking left. It's crazy to think that the end of not only this leg of my adventure, but my ENTIRE year of traveling, is in sight. When I touch down on June 6, I'll have been away from home for a total of eight months.... And as ridiculous as it sounds, I'm sure in just a few weeks after being back in MN, this whole journey will have felt like a dream. But that's traveling for ya- all about living in the moment and making the most of the present. Because in the future you could be stuck in a dorm room cramming for finals....

But coming back from the above musings, let me update you on how/where I spent the last 12 days.


Berlin
Sooooo I got stuck in Berlin. Oh, nothing as dramatic as being mugged and left without money or official documents, no- by "stuck" I just mean I couldn't find enough motivation to leave the city for a while. Like, a full week a while.

See I went in thinking I'd stay three, maybe four nights. Because I'd planned to visit Cologne (and actually had already booked a hostel there) for a few days before arriving in Paris on the 14th. But after a few days in Berlin, I realized that 1) the city was too big to see everything in only a few days, 2) my hostel was a great place to hang out and full of cool people, and 3) Berlin was cheap. AND training/bussing it to Cologne and then Paris would have been extremely expensive. AND I really had no reason to go to Cologne except to say hi to a few people for a night. AND I was tired of moving around so fast.

Plus, the hostel had a decent kitchen and I was having a blast actually cooking. A girl can only live off of raw carrots, apples, and the occasional bag of trail mix for so long. Trust me.

All that ^ is to say that I stayed in Berlin the longest of any city on my backpacking adventure so far, and totally loved it. The city is gritty, raw, unrefined, and completely real. Remnants of Berlin's (and Germany's) tumultuous past litter the streets. The people are essentially all hipsters. The atmosphere is extremely laid back. Everything and anything you want to do is available there: parks, art and history museums, shopping districts, cheap hair salons, and tons of great bars/music/clubs. [Actually, such things as 36-hour clubs exist in Berlin- people enter Friday night and don't stumble out until Monday morning. Insane.]

It's interesting how my style of traveling has developed over the past month or so. At the beginning (up until Germany, actually) I was blasting through cities. Two nights, three nights, four only if it was reeeaaaally special. And I enjoyed moving around like that. It kept things fresh and interesting and I got to see a LOT.

...But try doing a month of that, and all the motion starts to get a bit old. And by 'old' I mean exhausting. Right around the time I arrived in Berlin (and if I'm being honest, maybe even a few cities beforehand) I felt in need of a break. A little bit of time where I could just plop my backpack down and not have to pack it right back up in a few days. Where I could buy food and store it in the fridge for more than a night. Where I could actually get to know people for an extended period of time. And Berlin hit the spot. (I think the rest of my visits to cities will last longer from this point on as well.)

I spent the first few days in Berlin doing all my normal touristy activities: sightseeing, taking a walking tour, wandering, museum-going, etc. And then I said a final goodbye to Alec (we'd actually split up before Berlin, anyway), settled into the hostel and a new crew of people, and just chilled. It got to the point where I'd plan one activity for the day (going to the grocery store, for example), and feel successful if I managed to complete it. So in retrospect I probably stayed one or two days too long (as I really don't remember doing anything my last couple of days), but the chill-out time was a great battery recharger. Especially because Paris was next, and I planned on doing nothing but walking the streets for five solid days (in the non-prostitute sense).

My last day in Berlin consisted of contracting major blisters on both my feet, as well as spending a sleepless night on the freezing cold airport floor before my 6am flight to Paris, but it in no way colored my view of the German capital. Berlin's a top-of-the-lister, for sure.


Paris
The capital of France, the city of romance, the location symbolized by a large metal tower... what a place! I think I'm in love. Seriously. And it's the kind of affection that really has little solid basis, because as I now try to pinpoint actual reasons I think I could stay here all my life, I'm sort of drawing a blank. The world-famous museums? The impressive monuments? The food? The vibe? The exclusivity the extortionate prices create? The weather? (<-ha, I'm so funny. It's been 60 and rainy/cloudy pretty much my whole stay...) Well, whatever the reasons, I really have enjoyed my time here.

True to my original plan, I did spend my days here just walking the city. I toured the main tourist attractions (though didn't make it up close to the Eiffel Tower/Arc Du Triomphe until my third day here), got a history lesson on the artsy Montmartre area, popped into some nifty shops, soaked up the intermittent sun in parks, and did a handful of the top museums [I did the Louvre last night for free, and after hitting the celebrity pieces like the Mona Lisa and Venus di Milo (who decides which artworks become so famous, anyway?) wandered to the Islamic art area. Where I'd step into a room and literally be the only person there. In the Louvre.... Sometimes the curators were even MIA. Kind of a surreal experience.]. Also hit the small-yet-beautiful Rodin museum. Totally recommend it.

My hostel here isn't the nicest place to hang out, but it was fine as I wasn't planning on cooking, relaxing inside, or (as sad as it sounds) meeting people in Paris. So all in all, even with the iffy weather, I think I may have found my absolute favorite city. Though I still have yet to visit a few others that may give Paris a run for its money.... But for now, it's top.


Now I'm off to really do nothing but read, tan, and stargaze on the beaches of the south of France. And the Cannes film festival. So pumped.

And yes, I'm still trying to snag a ticket to a movie premiere. I'll let you know if I succeed.

xoxo, Cleome

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

To the East and Back Again

My time in Italy ended roughly one week ago, but damn does it feel like so much more time has gone by since then. In these past eight/nine days, my route took me through Vienna, then I hit the non-Western cities of Budapest and Prague, and am currently stationed in Berlin (just arrived). Kind of a whirlwind tour, but luckily I (so far) have lived to tell the tale.

[Oh, and if you happen to remember back to my possible list of cities to visit and their order... yeah, it's safe to say that has COMPLETELY changed. Like, everything after Italy. So get ready for some surprises :)]


Out of Italy #1~ Vienna, Austria
First on the trajectory was Vienna- a city that managed to secure a place on my list of favorite spots by the time I had to say goodbye (three days after getting in).

If I had to describe the vibe present in Vienna in one word, it would have to be "artsy." Everything had a creative bend: murals on the walls lining the river banks, art-nouveau architecture, random decorations on buildings... not to mention the hundreds of art museums all over the city. <- all the prettiness within Vienna made it so much fun to walk around and just marvel at the various types of public artwork.

I was mostly on my own in Vienna, but the city was so full of things to do and see, it didn't matter. To be honest, I generally prefer exploring cities on my own. I have gone out wandering with others, which is certainly fun, but I like to walk... like, a lot, and so when I'm going solo I can move around as much/little as I want. Also, I've devised the perfect method to get the most out of sightseeing in a city: grab a map from the hostel and figure out where that is located, then pick a direction that heads toward the main tourist attractions and put my map away until the evening when I realize I should start heading back to cook some dinner. Using that way of exploring, I invariably end up seeing more of the city than I otherwise would have, as I rely on my sub-par sense of direction (and which streets look coolest) to determine where I end up walking. Trying to make it back to the hostel with the map always turns into an adventure, as well....

So yeah, at this point I think Vienna would be one of the few cities I've visited which I could see myself returning to to live for a more extended period of time. Highly recommended.


Out of Italy #2~ Budapest, Hungary
Umm, it had never even crossed my mind to venture into Budapest, even briefly, until people I'd met in Europe (from Athens on) began mentioning the city as a cool place to go check out. But as I began rethinking my route- due to finanicial as well as interest reasons- I started to formulate a plan to hit a few more eastern cities (namely Split, Croatia; Budapest, Hungary, and Prague, Czech Republic) before stepping into Berlin....

Which happened to worked out perfectly when I met Alec (my travel buddy basically beginning in Budapest) in Rome, and it turned out he was planning on doing a similar thing at basically the same time (only he wanted to hit Vienna instead of Croatia). So we decided to keep in touch on our separate trips through Italy, and then just see if it would work out to meet up and travel together through Vienna [though we only arrived there together- he was staying with family friends, so we didn't see each other much in Austria], Budapest, Prague, and Berlin. And it did. By the time we split (at end of our visit to Berlin), we'll have traveled together for about a week.

Anyway, back to Budapest. My first real venture into "Eastern Europe." So cool.

Budapest the city, if taken solely at face-value, has little to offer tourists. You can see the monuments in a day, there are few museums, and it takes maybe 45 minutes to walk from one side to the other. But if you delve a bit deeper, there's a lot of cool things to DO. In my one and a half days in Budapest I: saw a $5 opera, went to a cheap Hungarian buffet, got caught in a torrential downpour, and visited "the 3rd best pub in the world" (according to Lonely Planet) in a cool ruins bar- building blasted in WWII and kept in its damaged condition. I had a lot of fun, and the vibe in the city (and among the travelers who pass through) is extremely relaxed and into having a good time. The atmosphere felt a lot more sunny than the majority of other European cities I've been to; it reminded me of Central America a bit, actually. Extremely comfortable and easy to immediately feel at home. Had I not already planned to go to Prague, I most likely would have stayed in Budapest longer. It was nice and cheap, too :)

[Also, Budapest reminded me that, though in Europe there are tons of possible routes to take/places to visit, the traveling community is weirdly small. I ran into not one but two different people I'd hung out with in my earlier travels (one in Israel, one in Athens) in the same day while walking through Budapest. Forces of the universe at work, I tell ya....]


Out of Italy #3: Prague, Czech Republic
Second (and final?) stop in the east was Prague- a city I'd heard a lot about, beginning in Costa Rica. It had the reputation of not only being extremely gorgeous, but also possessing a pretty active nightlife. Best of both worlds, right?

I really did enjoy Prague, no doubt. But maybe if I hadn't already seen Vienna, I would've been more amazed by its Victorian beauty. And maybe if I wasn't coming from Budapest, I'd have been overwhelmed by the nightlife experience....

That being said, I still had a great time in Prague. The walking tour I took was my favorite of the five or so I've been on so far. Seeing the astronomical clock "performance" was pretty cool. I came across free-ranging peacocks one morning, which definitely made my day. The city was full of scenic views and elegant architecture. And trying authentic absinthe had been on my To Do list... ;)

Plus, met some cool people and had a good Prague-after-dark experience. A fun, beautiful, and cheap city.


Loving All the Moving, But...
To those of you who don't know much about backpacking, it may sound like one big vacation. And while it is most likely on average more enjoyable than a routine of studying/working day after day, let me tell you: straight traveling is exhausting. Most cities are a three or four day stop, and in that short amount of time you try and fit in EVERY single "touristy" thing to do. Plus activities you hear recommended by other travelers. Plus going out at night. And if you're me, you walk everywhere. Because you're cheap. And wandering around is fun, anyway. But put it all together and it's a lot.

No, I am in no way complaining. Honestly, the backpacker life is pretty stress-free :) However, I am quite looking forward to spending at least a week in southern France. I'm planning on beach-bumming it for a while, coupled with some daytrips to the Cannes film fest. Sounds like a good life, no?

Two more big cities and then the beach. Hope y'all are enjoying finals....

xoxo, Cleome