posted by Ashalah on Features, My Great Adventure of 2009, travel, VEDA

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August 17, 2009 is the day that I left for Europe and completely upended my entire life. I had quit my job, subletted my apartment and sold my things so I could take on a life of spontaneity, a life of up-in-the-air. It’s been a wonderful year.

Looking over pictures to put in my vlog for today made me so travel-sick (opposite of homesick I guess?), it was such a fun trip. I lost all my inhibitions, lost all my insecurities and just lived. It was all so spur of the moment and there was always someone new and exciting to talk to.

Sometimes I get a little caught up in nostalgia and thinking about the past. I’m allowing myself today to dillydally in the streets of my memories of Europe for today and then tomorrow, I will look forward to my next great adventure, whether that be here in Boulder, here in Colorado or deep in the South Pacific.

Enjoy my little photo montage on my Vlog today! I have included a post from This? Is Not the Life I Ordered below from about two weeks into my trip. Please excuse the spelling, German keyboards were painful to use. (I would edit it but it would lose it’s authenticity )

All the Have Dones and Will Do’s

August 28, 2009

I can’t believe its been two weeks since I’ve left NYC. It still hasn’t sunk in that Iäm on this big, extended vacation; a vacation that is constantly evolving. I spent a glorious two days in Munich, where I had beer and sausage with a German Count, strolled the gardens of Schloss Nymphenburg for hours, drank a liter of beer with a guy from the US and had a free ‘baby beer’ at midnight with everyone from my room in the hostel I was staying at.

Freiburg is a pretty city, its old town charming and full of history. I’m also under the firm belief it is built on water since it sprouts up EVERYWHERE, including alongside the roads in what was once the old sewer system. I’ve wandered through outdoor markets, climbed a mountain to eat on top of it and have taken the trains around the the different towns in the area. I’ve hiked around numerous lakes, eaten a lot of sausage, drank a lot of beer and have even cooked for myself in my brother’s kitchen.

I’ve been euphirically happy for the majority of the time yet have felt rather lonely too and had a day where I was pretty depressed. As I write, I’m freaking out about money. I have had time to really think, to reflect and wonder about the many questions going on in my head.

I make last minute travel decisions; I went to Switzerland on a couple days notice and spent two nights in the magical Lucerne, which I promptly fell in love with when I gazed out at the lake from my balcony at my hostel. I wandered the entire town multiple times over, I defied my fear of heights by climbing to the top of an old tower and terrifying myself in the process (I’m talking sweat dripping, legs shaking for 15 minutes kind of terrifying). I walked across wooden bridges, saw a lion carved out of rock and an african band performing at a city-wide festival.

There is so much I have done and have yet to do and one thing that is constant: I hate European keyboards. Hence why I have not written yet and may not for a while still. Despite the keyboards, I love it here and am much happier than I have been in a long time. I’m currently in the midst of changing all my plans for this trip; what once included the UK and Ireland is now being changed up with Norway taking more precedence and Ireland possibly getting the boot in preference to Southern Spain.

But that could all change. I am open for adventure and I cannot wait to see what this wild and crazy trip has in store for me!