Mu posted our big picture plans a few days ago, and it has been great getting all sorts of advice about places to check out, stay and eat. We spent a few days in London, which was amazing per usual. Love that city, walking down the Thames and running along the tow paths in East London. Love our London family of friends.
After a few days, it was time to start our trip in earnest and we headed to Prague. Both of us have always wanted to visit this city, so it was a fitting place to kick off this next phase of our travels. The city is buzzing, and lived up to the hype - really pretty with cool cafes. There is a reason that Prague is generally viewed as a must visit for travelers. We are now on a tranquil train up to Berlin, with rivers, foliage in full bloom on the rolling hills and little Czech villages dotted along.
More broadly, I have felt energized from starting our trip. This is sort of weird, since the actual mechanics and logistics of traveling can be quite exhausting. Sometimes you have to forgo some sleep or eat nasty food, which exhausts. However, this has not been the case since we got back on the road.
Here are a few possibilities:
- Brain more fully engaged: I have found my alertness increasing quite a bit these last couple of days. I am perceiving little things to try and get a hang on where we are and what is going on. Part of that is that I want to soak it all up and the other part is that I need to work to stay safe. Part of this stems counterintuitively from not knowing the language and thus needing to get other clues from our environment.
- Being comfy lost: Three days ago, we caught an express bus from the airport into the center of Prague to the train station. We needed to buy train tickets to our next destination: Berlin. While we were on the bus, I saw "a" train station and prompted Mu to get off the bus. We walked into the station, and it seemed like we had gone back to the pre-Violet Revolution era of Czechoslovakia. Lots of smoke, people sleeping off too much booze on benches and a departure flipping sign that had to be a hundred years old. Rough around the edges and not really the kind of station I was expecting from a true international destination. Of course, we were at the wrong train station. Whoops. It was only a 5 minute walk to the right station, which was more worldly and homogenous.
This is a microcosm for the kind of things that happen all the time when you don't know the language. We are constantly taking out maps to look like big geeks or asking people where we are and where we need to go to get to our destination. Sometimes they understand and sometimes not so much. That is fine and part of the fun. Back home, I really hate getting lost. The loss of control and failure, even if it is inconsequential, is frustrating. On the road, it is just part of the life so no need to get too worked up. I guess I could bring a little more of the traveling approach to the life in the States.
- Travel memories flooding to the surface: Being back in this international traveling life has kickstarted the neural pathways that have been formed in similar situations over the last year and beyond. Like begets like. I have found myself thinking often back to places and adventures we have enjoyed. When back home, i spent more mental energy thinking about sports or current events. Now, my attention is devoted to taking in what is going on around us and recalling prior trips.
- Connectivity: It has been an interesting transition from the always available connectivity across multiple devices to speedy, but catch as catch can, wifi. There is still tons of connectivity, but it has been a bit of a rough transition from back home to traveling. The clearest example is with info and addresses especially when we are wandering around looking for where our hotel is located. We could get data and/or phone numbers through SIM cards, but since we are staying in places for such a short time it doesn't make much sense. This means that we need to be prepared with info and directions on the front end, which does not come naturally when you are used to having a computer in your pocket able to assist with any last minute data.
In sum, it feels great, and very comfortable, to be back traveling, catching trains and seeing new parts of the world. Up next? Berlin, another city i have been looking forward to visiting for years.
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