Hello from Florida! I’m currently at a playwriting residency and delaying actually rising for the day by scribbling this down…
In less than a week H and I start THE TRIP. And for the last few weeks we’ve already been on the road. We packed up New York, put everything in storage, got a handful of travel vaccines, went on an international phone plan, and I got a root canal. We flew to Toronto to say goodbye to family and to eat our weight in Tamil food.
Needless to say, it’s been a busy few weeks, a lot of us saying, “we should have done this trip in our 20s when all we had was random IKEA furniture and our backs were better.” We REALLY should have done this trip prior to moving to New York in 2018. But either way its here. At last.
A few random observations: my bag fluctuates between 30-34 pounds. Heavier than I was hoping. But I do have a flask full of whiskey, and several pounds of sunscreen that I hope to work my way through at our first stop. (My parents bags were much heavier! My dad even carried a typewriter for my mom so she could write on the road. More on that later…)
Travel vaccines are cheaper in Canada. This feels like a big DUH in a way, but they are. Harder to come by appointments so plan ahead, but they are much cheaper. So far we have received a Yellow Fever Vaccine, Typhoid, TDAP Boosters, and a Polio Booster. (Polio is making a resurgence around the world, including in the US.)
Sky Skanner has become one of our most used websites for travel. For example we booked our flights from Sydney to Frankfurt by searching flights anywhere in the world that were flying out of Sydney. You can also search an entire month at a time. *Always search on an incognito window, airlines are criminal with how these fares can climb when they know you’re interested.
Updated Itinerary so far:
March 14 Fly to Tahiti
March 20 Fly to Christchurch, New Zealand
April 20 Fly to Sydney, Australia
May 16 Fly to Frankfurt, Germany
(We’ll be driving/flying around Europe until August 14th)
If you read this far well that was sweet of you! And as a thank you, get this: H has cut all of his hair off. Because hair upkeep is “too much work” (insert loving eye roll) does this mean I will also buzz my hair at some point in the next year?