It's a place! It's a place I'm going to!
Oh lord, guys, it's really happening. I'm going to Greece!
My dear and talented friend Sarah is creating genius with her bare hands at a writer's colony on a Greek island (I know, doesn't it just smack of romance?) and I will go and meet her when her time there is up. WHAT! I'm sorry, I have to shake my head a little after every sentence and realization that yes, this is indeed going to happen.
A vacation to Greece has been such a pipe dream of mine for so long - something I've done little more than ponder and picture when I can't fall asleep at night. But months ago Sarah announced she'd be going, and I declared I'd be coming too. Even then, it was unlikely - the same level of conviction with which my childhood friends and I declared when we grew up we'd all buy houses on the same street so our kids could play together. Yes, let's. What a beautiful dream.
But Sarah was really doing it - and me? What did I have to lose? Egg money burning a hole in my savings account, it was possible. And more probable now than it had ever been. And so, with much delay and anxiety (No, I have to concentrate on moving first. Oh, but I have to do my taxes before. I just won't feel right until my art supplies are organized and... Okay, okay, I'll do it now!) I bought a plane ticket. I nearly bit my credit card in half while pushing the PURCHASE NOW button, but dammit, there's no going back. Forward only!
So I've built my castles in the sky. Now I need to make foundations under them. Foundations made of sturdy backpacks, up-to-date immunizations, travel books and language CDs. And a million other things I haven't even thought of yet. I'm green. I'm new. I've never been off the continent. So...
Help me? Please? I don't really know what I'm doing.
You might. All you people out there, with your international backpacking language-speaking jet-setting experience. Any tips for a fresh-out-of-the-gate world traveler? I've got the loan of a backpack already I think will work nicely (thank you Sue and Natalie), but I have so far to go. Any of you know anything about Greece? Or possibly Italy or Istanbul? (Secondary destinations. The conversation went like this: "Any chance we'll be political prisoners?" "No, I don't think so." "Oh hold on, we can see whirling dervishes! And Turkish baths! Okay, let's go.") What should I pack? What shouldn't I pack? Do I need to buy more comfortable walking shoes? Do I need to learn how to say more than Thank you, What am I eating, and American Embassy in three separate languages? What's a hostel like? Teach me, world!
Passport, tickets, money. Passport, tickets money. Those travel sickness pills mustn't be working. I still feel sick and I've taken four already. And I've only traveled up and down the stairs.
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