End of Chapter One

Before I left on this trip my parents each gave me parting advice.

From my dad, "Don't take any wooden nickles. And don't drink and drive. And don't do drugs."

Okay, no problem Dad.

My mum's advice was a little more philosophical, "Keep an open heart and an open mind. And always, always, trust yourself."

This advice, especially the part about trusting, is a little more difficult for me. I'm the kind of person who, as a little girl, would skip to the end of a book to read the last chapter, just to make sure that everything turned out okay. I like being able to see the whole picture before I've even started drawing it.

Unfortunately, that's not in the cards when you travel. You can't foresee getting stuck in Zagreb for a day on your way to Italy, or that your travel partner will fall in love with a Greek man, thus extending your time on the islands. You have absolutely no way of knowing that you'll run out of money more quickly than you thought you would, or that it will be MUCH colder in Munich than you anticipated. You can't know. And that's alright.

So the moral of the story? The moral of this part of the story at least?

My mom is right, of course. This experience has taught me to trust myself, and not only in everyday travel decisions like, "Should I visit the castle or see the opera?" , but also on a much bigger life decisions scale. This trip is something I've been planning in my head and seeing in my dreams for longer than I can remember. But, even though I've known that I've needed to go off and do something like this, I've never had the courage to actually trust myself to do it. I've always felt like there were so many other things I should be doing and that I couldn't step out of my well-planned life for one moment. I couldn't trust that maybe THIS is part of the plan.

Last night as Elissa, Michael and I were wandering the streets of Budapest with our new friend/local tour guide Adam, we thought how amazing it would be to one day have a reunion of all of the people we've met on this trip. Looking back, it's actually astounding to me not only how many locals we've befriended, but also how many fellow travelers we've adopted or were adopted by as we've gone along. We've been creating a little makeshift family of friends and kindred spirits.

Today is the last day that the three of us will be traveling together. Tomorrow Elissa will fly home to San Francisco, and Michael will go to Berlin. I'm on my way to London and after that, I have no idea. That's right, the girl that always has a plan does not have a plan, or really even the smallest semblance of a plan. My heart is pulling me in so many different directions right now and for once I'm just going to trust it and know that whatever happens, no matter how scary, it will be right.