Planes, Trains, Automobiles and Visitors

July 2017…4 countries, 8 flights, 14 trains, countless busses to concerts and airports, a boat ride, a paddle boat, a few bike rides, Ubers, Taxify and even a vespa.

This was the month of constant travel and visitors, and day one started with our one and only Digital Strategist, Alex! I think traveling this much has made me immune to jet lag – we did not stop for one second after flying 15 hours from Buenos Aires, Argentina…FULL advantage of vaca days.

We saw a good amount of Prague in 2 days…found most of Leslie’s hidden photo locations like the John Lennon wall, weird baby statues by the river, the oldest brewery, found an amazing river festival featuring a weird Czech band, Simple Muffin, did a 20 mile bike ride down the river (and got pretty lost in a beautiful park), went to the zoo, had traditional absinthe shots, saw a bad jazz band and drank some pilsners (Czech beer not up to Alex standards).

And then to Ferrara, Italy where all of my dreams came true – Fleet Foxes played outside a castle in this tiny town of no tourists, and we just happened to be there for sound check! There were maybe 500 people at the entire concert, and Hamilton Leithauser from the Walkmen opened! I was like a 5-year-old on Christmas Eve.

And then to Florence – the city that sparked my travel bug. I studied in Firenze 10 years ago and lived there for 5 months. This was my second time back since and it still feels like home. It took me a second, but I could navigate around pretty well and was so excited to play tour guide and show Alex all my old hangouts. My cousins from Chicago met us in Firenze and the crazy continued – my cousin who lives in Milan even met us out for a night. We did a vespa tour in Tuscany, spent some time in Cinque Terre, stopped over in Amsterdam where my aunt (international flight attendant) met us for dinner…and then, I needed a break.

I returned to Prague and to my Remote Year group and I was grateful for people that completely understood why I needed to do a hike by myself that weekend. This is something I was so hoping to learn how to do this year, and I think I finally have…that whole notion of making time for yourself – learning to be and do things by myself. I’ve never been good at this. It might not always be a seven hour hike through Bohemia or surfing in Lima, but going to a cafe or park to write in my journal or listen to music or a podcast (Buenos Aires was my favorite for that) or going for a solo walk or run or bike ride is even enough. It might seem simple, but it’s really been valuable and I hope I can remember to keep it up when I get home…considering I’ve already filled every night I’m home in September with plans.

I returned to Firenze (yes, I know, I’m obsessed) after my pitstop in Prague with two friends from Remote Year, mostly to see Yann Tierson play in a piazza down the street and Arcade Fire at a racetrack, but also just to go back “home” for a while. Sometimes, it just feels good to be somewhere familiar – where you don’t feel the need to constantly see things and do things and learn things about the city you’re in because you’re only there for a month. And with Padma and Eugene, I could do my own thing. We would wake up at different times, work at different times, do different things during the day and then have dinner together – for the most part, this is how we all travel and live together.

I was able to rediscover Firenze on my own – I would run different routes up to Piazzale Michelangelo, I rented a bike and went down the Arno, I spent a day wandering the Boboli Gardens, I worked on our amazing rooftop in the mornings and at sunset.

It was a good week of downtime before the crazy would pick up – a train to Rome to see my aunt for dinner, again, (and all her flight attendant friends), a flight to Budapest to travel with more Remote Year friends and meet another group that was residing there and then back to Prague again before heading out to Belgrade.

This month was insane, but a good insane and it’s still insane to me that I even have the privilege to be here – everywhere – traveling the world yet still prioritizing my work (now, at night), but also myself.

As a Kindler, I think we all need to remember to make time for ourselves!