Travel Things you Learn

I'm leaving for a lovely vacation tomorrow and in the planning of this vacation, I've learned a few things that I never learned planning other vacations.  I'm going to share them with you so that you don't have to stress like I have.

~ Bad things happen all over the world, every day. There's death, and war and awfulness.  But, you will notice an overabundance of bad things happening where you're headed in the weeks leading up to your trip.  It probably has something to do with you noticing it more because you're headed there.  Or the gods having it out for you.  Either way, try not to freak out.  The bad things, while awful, mean that security will be heightened and you just may be safer.

~ Packing is indeed the worst activity ever.  It's up there in front of watching paint dry and watching grass grow.  You spend weeks figuring out what to take, and then pulling out all of those things, because you don't think they're quite right.  And then you stare at the remnants of your closet in hopes of some inspiration.  Then finally, you've had enough so you just throw a bunch of things in the bag and hope for the best.  Also, you hope that it will in fact zip when the time comes.

~ The weather will become the exact opposite of what it has been the second you can see the 5 day forecast.  For the past few weeks it's been 80 degrees and sunny, the 5 day forecast for next week says 62 and rainy.  And you were curious as to why packing was so difficult this time around.

~ Eventually after all the stress of getting ready, and possible bad things happening, you will be super excited to travel, and you may not be able to sleep because of it.  But that's ok, that's what the airplane is for - sleeping away so it goes quickly.  Because the faster you fall asleep, the faster the flight goes, which means the faster you'll be there! 

How to Travel: Going with the Flow

My friend and I were discussing travel the other day and how we both do it.  And as it turns out, we both do it very, very differently - as is pretty much the case with us in every situation. We approached every situation - money, planning, booking, budgeting, etc. - differently. So I thought it might be fun to share what I do when I travel.  This particular post is about going with the flow - obviously based on the title : )

I'm fairly methodical when it comes to planning travel.  I do loads of research beforehand, and map out where and when I want to go.  There are spreadsheets and handy-dandy reference sheets involved.There are usually lists of things I want to see, and longer lists of restaurants I want to try.  Let's just say I like to be prepared.

The worst thing I can think of is wasting my time wandering a city blindly, because I have NO idea where anything is or what I even want to see there. However, that doesn't mean I'm one of those crazy travelers that books everything down to the nearest second either.  Those people are evil and should really loosen up a bit.

My plans are guidelines just to keep me on track.  But if I forego the plans in exchange for something even cooler, then that's great too.  If, for instance, I make a wrong turn and find a gorgeous street full of shop or maybe if I've read about a Stevie Ray Vaughn statue existing somewhere in the city, and I just happen upon it whilst checking out the lake.  All of these instances are allowed in the Kristen Travel Plan.  

The absolute best part of travel is discovering new and marvelous things.  When you plan down to the minute, you focus too much on things you've already seen in your research and forget about the hidden gems.  Those are my favorite things to find.  And because I have some serious travel directionality (the ability to not get lost while in another state or even country, while still being able to get lost 1 mile from my home), I've been very lucky to discover some awesome gems, which just makes me crave trips and travel that much more!