Welcome to my blog! My name is Brock, and I like being abroad! These are the true-life chronicles of yours truly traveling abroad.
You see, this isn’t my first time setting out into the world with a backpack, but it will be my longest trip to date. We’ll get to the details soon, but first I want to bring you a little further back from the future. Let’s start with the present, shall we? Right now, I am at the end of a six-month return to my hometown on the American-Canadian border. I’ve been working to save up money to take another extended trip. I had returned home last spring after depleting all of my savings from a six-month journey ranging from waiting tables and teaching English in France to writing for an NGO in a northeastern Indian village, then finally trying to make a “go” of a romantic French bohemian life in Quebec. In between, I witnessed history (and Aretha Franklin) with an invitation to attend one of the many inaugural balls being held in Washington D.C. throughout the week. So here I am. Well now, I suppose it’s time to go on to:
THE PLAN!
1 man….
with sort of a plan…
ummm…. to do the best he can? …
Hell, I better give it to you straight. I’m not much for rhyming, anyway. So, the truth is, I have very few things about this trip set in stone. Here’s what I know.
1)I know I have a flight from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Reykjavik, Iceland on September 16th.
2)I know I want to head in a general eastern direction.
3) I know that I’d like to roughly stop traveling between June-July 2010, but then again, that could turn out to be a roughly short amount of time in the end…
4) I know I will attend the Cannabis Cup on November 22, 2009 in Amsterdam, Holland.
5) I know I will be happy with the unknown.
See, the unknown is a strange and beautiful thing isn’t it? Some people face the unknown with fear and negatively express themselves through racism, hatred, or often, endless self-pity. Do you know anyone like that? Well, I’ve learned that taking on the unknown can be an experience that can make or break a person.
Maybe this may seem off-subject, but it seems to me that the most unhappy people are the ones who live life without the knowledge that each day, whether extremely routine or completely fresh, brings with it the possibility of change! And isn’t change a wonderful thing?! When on the road, my senses become heightened. The everyday becomes completely new and different; why, a trip to the grocery store is an experience in itself!
Furthermore, life just becomes downright simple when you live out of a backpack. Suddenly one’s needs become much more apparent and their wants are forgotten at the door. Upon entering that door of travel, those wants are exchanged for increased interaction with people on a face-to-face basis and the simplicity of wandering the streets of a foreign city for hours on end; wandering, but not lost. After all those hours, the luxury of a simple meal, a shower, a clean bed, and a good conversation with a new friend can be the most rewarding moments of life on the road.
Maybe that has helped you better understand the method for my madness. In regards to my trip, I do have some other ideas I am keeping in mind for down down the road. These involve a bike, a boat, Eastern Europe, North Africa, Southeast Asia, perhaps? The country of Estonia interests me; mostly for the name, but also for it’s unique geographical location. Well, there you have it. This whole “plan” I have may seem completely absurd to some, or completely genius to others, maybe somewhere in between. The thing is, the places you go don’t have to have exactly a good reason. As a matter of fact, I once met a man who spun a globe and decided wherever his finger landed would be his destination. Well, it’s a long story from there; involving desert hitchhiking and child soldiers, but you see, traveling to places you wouldn’t normally go to may be the best way to do it. However, I do recommend making sure you are not at risk of encountering those child soldiers.
Wherever you stand, stay tuned to my updates as I share with you stories of my adventures on the road. To make it easy for you folks, I’ll place a convenient map soon, so you can quickly find my route. The wonders of technology, right? So wonderful in fact, you can even follow me on twitter, facebook, and at my email address: lemieuxbrock@gmail.com; just check out the contact section. I’d love to hear from you! Anyone out there, really, I love people and I would love to answer any questions you have about me, traveling, or just life in general.
To today, everyone!
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