Been feeling really antsy the past few days, and we've finally figured out why. We've been in Central Europe for two weeks. Aside from a few fairly calm days in Bialowieza, we have city-hopped. Three days each in Warsaw, Wroclaw, Prague - each beautiful in its own way, but each filled with tourists, and too many things to do each day (with never enough time or energy), and too many ways to spend money.
We are just not city people. We knew this before we left; it was strongly reinforced in metropolitan cities in Canada and on the US east coast. One day - sure, two days - okay, but three days? Three days and we're done. After Krakow and Budapest we will seek out smaller towns.
Add to constant sensory overload: our stays in 4- or 6-bed dorms in hostels where a good nights' sleep is rare; long bus rides where you're crammed in like sardines; not knowing the language; eating whatever you can cobble together; feeling overwhelmed from lack of time to figure out what's next... Well, it's been exhausting. Amazing - don't get us wrong - but exhausting.
The construction estimate rule applies to many things; long-term travel may be one of them. We have agreed to determine how much time we *think* we need in a place, and then double it to allow for planning, rest, communication catch-up and laundry while in that place. We'll test the construction estimate rule in Krakow in a few weeks and see how that fares.
We have also agreed to limit daily outings to 5-6 hours to allow for rest... We have failed miserably there. Too much to see to just sit around! Sigh.
Another challenge: we have not yet mastered the art of enjoying our current place and simultaneously figuring out where to go next. We do one or the other pretty well, but not both simultaneously. We've pencilled out a tentative route for the rest of Central Europe - we want to stay flexible but we only have 90 days here, and we are exploring volunteer opportunities, and we don't want to miss any essentials, so some iota of a plan is necessary. The tricky part is the line between "iota" and "actual" plan. Still working on that definition...
Back to the point of this post - it's time to get back to the "slowly" part of "slowly global" and get some rest. Mental rest, anyway. For the next 10 days or so, while we figure out the details of our next self-guided stop, we will be helping out at the farm and vineyard of a Czech family. Very excited to see how our WWOOF experience translates to European Help Exchange, very curious to learn more about the Czech culture, very interested in being tired from manual labor instead of sightseeing - and thrilled to learn a little something about the inner workings of a winery!
I am not a world traveler by any means. In fact, I've traveled very little. But I often think about what I would do if I did. I do know that the experience has to be your own. I think its fairly easy to gravitate toward what other people think you need to experience and see and get caught up in that and then look back and realize you've lived everyone else's experience but your own. It might be useful to take a step back and look at it in terms of what your values are. If you value things like small town life, farms, wine, food, animals, etc. then seek out the places that give you those experiences. That's not to say you shouldn't stay open to new experiences, but if there are things you already know about yourselves (like you're not city people), then honor that. And I think the old adage "quality over quantity" is something to consider regardless of the circumstance. Instead of saying "We have to visit this city and this city and this city and see this building and this museum and this monument." Try looking at it from the stand point of "we want to work on a family farm" or "we want to see how this beer is made". Once you have a list of the experiences you want to have, you may be able to easily match them up with the places you intend to visit along the way. At the very least it will narrow down the things you're searching for in each place to only the things you feel passionate about and not what others think you should be. Like I said, I am not a traveler by any means, but I think that these same things apply to any adventure a person intends to have, whether it be a larger trip like yours or a simple day trip close to home. I hope you guys are having as much fun as it looks like you're having! Breathe. And take care.
ReplyDeleteThank you Andrea! Your advice is totally spot on. Jen is working on letting go of constant project management mode - once that is resolved, we can just "be" and enjoy. :)
Deletei got tired just from reading this / =
ReplyDeleteYep...
DeleteHey Jen and Patrick! Great to hear you're still on the road! Thanks for the inspiring stories and pics. Best wishes from matt tyler.
ReplyDeleteMatt!! Thanks for following along, welcome back (or is that months overdue?!) and we really hope all is going well for you. Na zdravi!
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