Preparation

On my previous trips, I either wrote travel reports or, my favorite, created travel videos. Since I will be traveling alone again after a long time, I am entering the 21st century of travel and will start blogging, or rather give it a try.

In two weeks, I will be going to Portugal. What was just an idea last week, I turned into reality at the beginning of this week. I already tried to swap my shifts for the last week of June last week, which was more difficult than I thought. I knew that I wanted to go travel again, but I wasn't sure where exactly and what kind of trip. A friend who is also going to Portugal then brought up the idea of traveling to the westernmost country in Europe.

I read a few travel reports, looked at pictures on Pinterest.com, and it didn't take long for me to decide that Portugal would be my next travel destination. The only problem was: I didn't have anyone to accompany me yet. My colleagues couldn't take time off spontaneously, the students were still in the middle of the semester, and the high school students had their oral exams that week. Although I have traveled alone often, a lot, and for a long time, I have never taken a road trip alone. I was concerned that 9 days without someone to talk to could be a bit monotonous.

At the beginning of this week, between two night shifts, I spontaneously decided to just go and see how it goes. In short, I booked the flights, the rental car, and created my road trip itinerary. I made an effort to plan as much activities as possible every day so that I wouldn't get bored. I signed up on Airbnb.com and posted my travel plans on couchsurfing.com to connect with other travelers and locals. I spent almost the entire day planning my trip and then I got really hungry. But I was also happy to finally be able to travel again (I didn't go on a single trip in April and May!) and excited for the trip.

Since I have also planned a few hikes, I started looking for suitable equipment. I ordered a hiking backpack from Millet for day trips and then on Friday, I went to my trusted outdoor store and got myself a pair of new hiking boots from Meindl. To be well-equipped for the flights as well, I just ordered a neck pillow and the new QuietComfort 35 from Bose, hoping to no longer be bothered by loud airplane noise in the future. Now I can start! Only 13 days left - just enough time to break in the new shoes.. ;-)