Get off my back! Yes, it's really me booking planes, trains, automobiles, BnBs, museums, the Eiffel Tower, a Rhine cruise, Leonardo's Last Supper in Milan, and wine tour through Venice. While I appreciate your uber-invasive software, tracking my every move, it has been a pain in the ass trying to book this trip!
Goals Update:
The best part of this quest so far, has been its ability to help me focus. I am at the halfway point between deciding to do this and leaving on June 2nd. I have earned 50% of my monetary goal and spent it accordingly: 75 days and nights all booked and paid for, also 9 out of 10 flights, most museum tickets, most bus tickets and about half of the train tickets. I have three weeks to raise the rest, paying for the last 25 days and other missing bits, plus the money I'll need to get around and live once I'm there. Planning on $40 a day, hoping to schlep a few hundred more windows and make it $50 a day. Luckily, I'm booking up. A ton.
This weekend I'm doing my yearly Lake Oswego gig. 15-18 homes over two days. Last year I had to do it on my own as my brother bailed to visit the Oregon coast. This year I'll have Sam and his girlfriend Corinne to help. Corinne hasn't washed windows before, but hey, this isn't rocket science. It takes five minutes to learn how to properly wash a window (a lifetime to master).
Health Update:
I have lost 15 pounds! Down from my late-winter chud of 208 to 193. I'm in mid-summer window cleaning shape. Hoping to drop another 8 by June; less weight to carry around Europe. I've only ridden the stationary bike a handful of times. Doubt I've even put in the 91 km I plan on doing my first day in Holland.
Espana:
My original plan was to travel the Eastern coast of Spain, from Barcelona, down the Costa del Sol to Malaga then up to Seville and onto Portugal. I needed to add two days to Spain, taking two days from Central Europe. Much cheaper to fly in and out of Athens on a Wednesday than a Friday. What to do with these two days? Madrid! Madrid? It's a lot of travel time to the heart of Spain and back. But, the Prado, the Goyas? How can I not? I'm also considering using those two days to hop from Gibraltar to Tangier. Notch another continent in my travel belt? Also sounds good. Luckily I've got a month or two before these details must be sorted.
Nothing more to add for now, my dear reader. Yes, I'm talking to you, my one reader :) These preparation details seem banal, but maybe I'm not approaching them correctly? Well, it's a learning process. And hey, the first chapter of Walden, with its Economy, parts A through E? Not that enthralling either.
Until Later,
Jared
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