If you’re going to leave your friends, family, home, city, possessions, and everything familiar to you for four months to travel solo around the world, I recommend that your very first stop be somewhere where you have a friend already, to ease into the adventure a bit. If possible, to the home of two of your dearest friends who will welcome you into their home and make you a bed on their couch complete with a little stuffed dog named Pineapple:
Also it should have a real dog whom you love dearly:
And an amazing cat who gets jealous if you only take a photo with the dog and will jump into your lap to insist on a selfie too:
My Around the World travel itinerary has only two cities on it that I’ve been to before (San Francisco and London), and I could not be happier to be able to start this trip with a visit to see my dear friends Kristen and Brian in San Francisco.
Today I took care of a few travel errands (second Japanese encephalitis vaccination, visa photos), and then we went out to a Fat Tuesday lunch at Brenda’s, ending with a flight of beignets.
We took the Juice to Chrissy Field, where you can take a photo that looks like the sculpture in the background is a propeller hat.
Then we drove across the bridge and up to Hawk Hill to admire the view for a bit.
(We also got Mardis Gras beads at lunch.)
We walked around Sausalito, got Fredz coffee, and visited a gems & crystals shop. We spent quite a while in the shop choosing some great rocks for Kristen, and after the owner heard about my trip around the world she gave me a piece of tourmaline as a gift, to protect me on my journey. It was so lovely to encounter kindness from strangers already, on the very first day of trip.
I think it was a pretty fantastic first day on the road.
I know you primarily as a reader (so much so that I have you labeled “Emily Reader” in my feed to avoid confusion with the Emily who likes knitting), and I’d be interested in hearing your book plans for the trip. Are you bringing a book with you? Will you pick them up and discard them along the way? Have you gone digital?
I always have great difficulty choosing a book for a brief vacation, so I don’t know how I’d approach reading on such a long trip.
Best of luck on your journey.
What a wonderful city you’ve chosen to kick off your adventure. :)
Seems like a pretty excellent start to me!