Planning – so far…
Posted on 09 April 2008 by Natalie
Any one can plan a trip. Decide on dates and times. Book transportation, lodging, and sort out the details. I’ve done this before. It feels safe and good. Sort of like a warm, fuzzy blanket that is wrapped around me on a cold night. Don’t get me wrong, even with each detail “planned” to perfection, problems can still come up.
As much as my instinct would be to plan every detail of where we will go, what we will do, what will we see, how we will get there, etc. I know that Justin and I will inevitably have a more rewarding experience (i.e. more adventure and excitement) if I continually aim to not “plan it all”.
That being said, some planning is essential. At this time, this is what we do know.
30-Sep-2008
- Happy 26th Birthday to Justin!
- We are getting on a plane in Detroit, Michigan. Our flight leaves at 3:10 pm.
- We have a lay over at the Toronto airport for a few hours.
01-Oct-2008
Our flight lands at 11 am in Rome!
- Our flight lands at 11 am in Rome!
- We have a reservation at the Colors Hotel near the Vatican.
02-Oct-2008
- Our first full day in Rome. We plan on sleeping at the Colors Hotel again.
03-Oct-2008
- We will wake up by 6 am and walk to the Panda Hotel, where my family is staying.
- Bus arrives at 7 am and departs by 7:15 am. We are going to Bagnoli del Trigno (the town where my grandma was born).
- We should be back in Rome around 10 pm. At that point we can either talk the driver into dropping us off at the Colors Hotel or we can walk (0.9 miles).
04-Oct-2008
- My family is planning on checking out of the Panda Hotel around 10 am.
- From the hotel they plan to go to the train station. The train is schedule to arrive in Perugia around 2 pm.
- Around 4 pm we should be checking into the castle on Lake Trasimeno. We will stay at the castle for 7 nights
NOTE: During our time at the castle, we will be celebrating with family. The next several days are currently based on an excel document my mom so kindly emailed to me. Other than the wedding date itself there are very few details regarding how our time will be spent.
05-Oct-2008
- Go to Tuscany
06-Oct-2008
- Go to Florence
07-Oct-2008
- More time in Tuscany
08-Oct-2008
- Another day enjoying Tuscany
Apparently Tuscany is the place to be. 
09-Oct-2008
- The BIG DAY!!! My brother (Philip) and Amy are getting married.
10-Oct-2008
- A day to rest and relax: recuperate from celebrating.
11-Oct-2008
- We check out of the castle. Suddenly our posh accommodations are gone. Time to be a real “Nomad Backpacker
We currently do not know where we will be sleeping the evening of Saturday, October 11th. My family will be traveling up to Paris for a few days before flying back to Detroit. As tempting as Paris sounds, Justin and I have discussed the weather. As backpackers we are not planning on bringing winter gear or any heavy jackets. Therefore, we are currently planning on doing the first leg of our travels around the Mediterranean region instead of heading up into the northern, more cold regions.
At this time, we may travel through Southern Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, and Turkey. This is not in a particular order. We could easily end up not traveling to half of the countries I have just mentioned. Right now, its a vague plan.
THE FACT BOX
Reflections on Planning:
Overall, I feel planning is a process of taking the thoughts, ideas and dreams and making them reality. For example, our flight on Justin’s birthday is a fact.
Another element of planning should be to avoid taking dreams and shoving them into the fact box. It could be green like mine or your fact box might be another color. Unfortunately, no matter what color your fact box is, sometimes the fact box is too small. It won’t leave space to dream.
For example, we plan on spending 4 days in Naples. Perhaps on our fourth day, we hear about a really awesome festival occurring of the Amalfi Coast (just south of Naples), but we already have tickets to get on a ferry and go to Sicily. Now we can’t spend a few days on the coast enjoying the festival.
As a result, while planning, certain things should not move immediately from the initial dream to the fact box, because then the plans get stuck in the box. At this point in the “planning” process Justin and I will still discuss where should we go, etc. But we won’t be committing to the fact box until it becomes a necessity.
Although we won’t have the security of having it all planned out, thinking outside of the box should allow our travels to both enriching and rewarding.
Tags | budget travel, itinerary, Planning
insaaaaaaaaaaaaanely jealous. gr.
if you want ideas about turkey or greece, i can try to help you…
miss you
I agree with Hannah. This is seriously making me want to travel all over the place again. I miss seeing things
At least we’re learning the busking ropes! Maybe you can MAKE money whilst backpacking!
Hannaha, we would love information about both Turkey and Greece. Have you traveled in the Mediterranean before?
If you want to travel, I think you should just do it. After you graduate that is
Hooray for busking! So, a number of Natalie’s regulars who saw us busking asked her when the three of us were going to “cut an album”. They told Natalie that we were “original” and well practiced. I thought this was amusing because we were neither original nor did we have much practice playing together. Anyway, I thought you would get a kick out of the Winter Park reaction.
Baha. That’s hilarious Justin! Original and well practiced! Maybe Winter Parkians just weren’t used to hearinf indie songs…