We decided to take this plunge and head abroad for a new life. Originally the plan was to get a place: hadn’t decided if it would be a city flat, village house or somewhere more rural. The thought of chickens is nice. But so is the thought of going within a block to a cafe for coffee. But what we knew for sure was we wanted to travel Europe a lot. Why rent or buy a place, just to leave and travel a lot? And where that house would be, we still did not even know. This led us to our next plan: travel like nomads. Our working plan was to travel until we were tired of travel. See places we may want to live and figure out the next step. We figured we would last six month before we were tired of this life.
Since we were going to go everywhere eventually, where we went first was not too important. We made this decision based on flight cost. It made sense to go to a travel hub and tourist there first. We chose Amsterdam. Bought the plane tickets. Got an airB&B for a week. So we had a deadline for our departure date. We were on our way!
Getting set to leave our old life behind took way more energy and time than we expected (See The Big Purge). When the date of departure arrived, we had not had any time to plan anything more for the trip than the flight and one-week accommodation. Next city on the list is still unknown. We are not novice travelers and know we can get along.
We leave San Diego with two 50 pound checked bags (exactly the airline limit) and 2 large, USA size carry-ons: they were heavy too. This is all our belongings. Pared down to traveling clothes and tourist necessities mostly. We have a few days’ stopover on the east coast to visit family. We realize that our international flight does not allow fifty pound bags, but 20 kilos (only 44 pounds), and a weight limit on the carry-ons, so we head to Target to buy a third suitcase and spread the load. Disaster averted. We still have our “necessities”. We land in Amsterdam, catch the airport shuttle for the city center. And push and pull our 5 bags for a few blocks, dodging a constant swarm of bikes. One of our bags has only 2 wheels and must be dragged. An imposition for sure. How in the world did people travel with suitcases without wheels! It is amazing that it took so long to come up with that invention. As we ponder this, we have already figured out we need to jettison some weight.
It is July and unseasonably hot. 90’s. Bloody hot as we say now after two years of British English (And now we would say, near 30 C). It is very obvious that our baggage problem is the warm clothes we are lugging. Solution: get a storage unit and stash the winter clothes until Winter. Suffice it to say, the chore of getting a storage unit in The Netherlands, is a whole other story (see Sounds so Simple). The challenge took most of several days.
Our apartment is typical for Amsterdam: tight. Up three flights of stairs that are really ladders with carpet. Our host is delightful, and helpful. We immediately see if we can stay longer, since we do not have any plans about where we will be after one week. She can only give us three more nights. That first night, inside I am freaking out. I do not sleep. And I am on the verge of crying. I shield this from Mark, but I suspect he is feeling much the same. We miss our dogs painfully. And I am a little scared about our future. This is a decision that cannot be reversed, our house is empty, albeit still not yet rented. As every day recedes, I am more anxious. My solution is to stay busy, which is easy.
We are in a fun city that has a lot to offer tourists. And we have a lot of planning to do. We spend our time equally between tourist activities and trying to figure out our future. It is clear to us that we need to get ahead of the travel planning. It is something I have always spent a lot of time doing. It is fun to plan your vacations to death. You get to have your vacation virtually before you even get there. Surprises are minimized because you have seen the inside of your rooms, and know the location. And we can save money with advance bookings and can take advantage of numerous offers and opportunities. I like to read reviews and choose wisely. Can I keep this planning habit, or are we going to start living more carefree? I am not ready for carefree yet; I never want to spend a night in a bus station. Getting out in front of the planning is going to be key. Time is given to planning. We have two constraints: we have only ninety days in the Schengen territories and we will be exiting via Amsterdam after collecting our Winter gear from Storage here). We decided after ten days in Amsterdam (almost gone) to visit Brussels and from there we found a good flight to Prague, so that is where we will go.
I found a website for International pet sitters. And thought this may be an idea for us. This will get us some much needed pet time. It will get us into more residential areas where we can try out local living, and it may save some money on lodging. I have perused the assignments and applied for dozens. But so far, we have not gotten any replies from any of the assignments. I keep at it, changing up my letter of introduction. And finally we get one. It will be in Germany and at the end of our Schengen time. So we will spend the next two months traveling around this region, ending in a village near Braunschweig Germany, before exiting Schengen territory through Amsterdam. Having a pet sitting assignment has given us the added benefit of a constraint on time and location, helping narrow down our travel options. It does not sound like a benefit as I typed that sentence, but really, having decisions made is making life easier right now.
By the time we are set to leave Amsterdam, we have a place to go: Brussels. transportation arranged, we are going by bus, and lodging set. We have lightened our load by about 70 pounds. We are safe for another week.