I’m going on a one-month long trip through Europe! Yesterday I bought a train ticket worth 30 days of travel time, so now it’s set in stone – or rather in some very expensive digital bits – that I’m going. The last time I’ve been on vacation was during my bachelor studies a few years ago and with some friends. This time I’m going alone and I have to admit that I’m a bit nervous.

I’m not having issues with being away from home. Exploring foreign cities and countries is actually something I enjoy. When I visited Brussels for FOSDEM for the first time I was very excited and it was great fun. But this was primarily because I was meeting other software developers I already knew from the internet.

This time I will be traveling on my own and I’m curious how long it will take me to acclimate myself. Hopefully it will not take long until I can enjoy the trip. I’m not good at meeting new people. Actually, I’m terrible at that. This is another reason why I chose to make the trip, forcing myself to get to know others without having a group of friends as “social catalyst” with me.

Tomorrow will mark the start of my journey. I deliberately haven’t yet looked up any hostels to stay in. My “plan” is to go to the train station and just take the first train I like. Is this a risky strategy, given that Covid still isn’t over? Maybe. But I don’t want to follow a schedule for the next month.

My rough destination is France and Spain, possibly Portugal and maybe Italy on the way back. I’ll travel larger distances by train and will probably walk some stages on foot.

Today I packed my backpack with stuff I will need the next days. Some clothes like shirts and trousers, a coverlet, a small bag for buying groceries, as well as my laptop so I can continue to work while on the train or in a hostel. Being able to work from any place with wifi is nice 🙂

So now I will enjoy the rest of the evening and hopefully go to bed a bit earlier than usual.

Happy Hacking!