Tonight I board a brand new 787-9 for one of the longest flights I’ve ever taken: 15 hours, 45 minutes, LAX to Melbourne.

I have adventure planned.

Well, not “planned”. I have some ideas. I have some things I want to do.

The Great Barrier Reef. Uluru. Great Ocean Road.

I’m meeting up with a travel buddy, for what will surely be hilarity.

But beyond all that, I’m just going to go. No deadlines or timelines. No real agenda. No rush. Three months of “yeah, sure, let’s do that.” A slow roll through the summer.

But, of course, what I’m really hoping for is meeting new and amazing people. That was easily the best part of last year. I met people I can’t imagine my life without, even if they are flung to the far corners of the world.

Adventure awaits.

Questions Asked Frequently

I’ve gotten a bunch of great questions recently, from friends and acquaintances. It seems the more comfortable I get travelling, the less I understand that it’s pretty weird what I’m doing.

Eww, hostels. Really?

If you’ve never stayed in a hostel, or haven’t stayed in one in the past 10 years or so, you probably have the wrong idea. For example, check out the Generator Hostel Dublin, one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever stayed (including hotels). That’s not the nicest place I’ve stayed mind you, it’s really corporate (1,000 beds). Given the choice, and they were in the same city, I’d stay at Meyerbeer hostel instead. Yes, sharing a bathroom is kinda a drag sometimes, but that’s a exceptionally minor inconvenience compared to the ease at which you can meet people, and the significantly lower price to stay there. A $40 a night hotel would be disgusting. Generator costs about that. Hostels rule.

Also, thanks to Hostelworld.com, you never have to stay at a crappy hostel (well, almost never). It’s like Hotels.com, except with hostels. There are user reviews for nearly every hostel, often hundreds of them. You can get a good sense of what the place is like, before you ever book.

What do you miss not being home?/Do you get homesick?

I miss my friends, of course, but for most of 2013 I only saw them every few months anyway. So 2014 wasn’t that different, I was just somewhere else in the interim. I do regularly miss my Tempurpedic memory foam bed, and the lovely quiet that is my house. Also free laundry. And good sushi.

Beyond that… one of the slow changes that’s happened as I’ve traveled is that I’ve become quite content being wherever I am. When I’m at home, I do home stuff, eat at my favorite places, watch TV, etc. When I’m not, I do… whatever there is to do where I am. I don’t worry about home stuff when I’m away, as I can do that stuff when I get back. I do, however, constantly think about travel when I’m home. That probably explains a lot.

So are you done now?

This one is odd. I gotten a few different versions of this. I think it’s the polite way of saying “So you got that out of your system, now are you ready to come home?” To me this question tells me a lot about the person asking, and makes me feel… different. I appreciate that what I’m doing isn’t normal, especially since I’ve done so much of the “traditional” life (career, house, car(s), etc) already. It still surprises me though that some people, even close friends, just can’t grasp why I’d want to travel all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not in any way judging the traditional house/job/family lifestyle. I tried it (most of it, anyway) and it just didn’t fit. Maybe I’ll try it again. Maybe I won’t. I don’t know. I don’t think I need to know, at least not right now. But that’s me. If it works for you, honestly I’m envious.

This misunderstanding of what I’m trying to get out of life is one of the main reasons I wrote this.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, do whatever you can to be as happy as possible, as much as possible, whatever that is. That’s probably overly simplistic and potentially clueless to the harshness of reality, but so be it. We have a limited number of turns on this little blue marble. Might as well make them worth it.

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