Before it all begins

It’s Tuesday morning, and no it’s not Belgium. It’s Eugene, Oregon. A cup of green tea steams into my stuffed head, kicked in a few nights ago by a change in the weather. In front of me is this screen and the next few months, and the ones beyond that, and the ones beyond that. It’s early March. In 5 months, I leave for a 4-month trip to Europe.
Oh boy.

I could blame the other BootsnAll guys for this. Or the beer. Or both. But we all had a hand in it. What was it – over a year ago now? – when over some pitchers at our local talk turned and turned and Sean suddenly said “Ant, how would you feel if we put you on a train and sent you backpacking around Europe for a few months?”
My response? I don’t remember (beer’s fault). Ever since, that comment has been in the back of our minds. 4 months, 1 guy, railing around Europe and writing about it. Now it’s all soon to happen. Dream come true, no?
Yes. Dreams coming true have all sorts of weird costs and goblins associated with them though. There’s the grand idea – and there’s the fine detail. There’s the stuff you can plan – and the stuff you’ll have no idea about until you turn a corner and there it is. There’s the anticipation, and the annoyance that the leaving time isn’t here yet – and then there’s the roller-coaster moment where the plane takes off but you’re in free-fall because it’s all going now, and there’s no turning back, there’s just the up up and away, and the “let’s see what happens from here.”
4 months. 1 guy. A backpack. Some railpasses. A really big bloody continent. I have hardly any idea at all of what’s going to happen between now and then. Really, I’ll just be content with my head getting back to normal. Come August though, it’s just going to get exploded all over again.
Man I can’t wait.