Packing & Planning

Ha! So, it occurred to me that I'm leaving for Vancouver, BC in the morning. So maybe I ought to be a bit more prepared than I am.

I'm going through my usual trip-paranoia, even though this trip is going to be significantly shorter than my last one. Three days vs. two weeks? Doesn't quite compare, does it? Not really.

I'm digging through a Lonely Planet guide to the city of Vancouver, thinking over the things I'm going to do and building a rough itinerary. The funny thing is that I rarely (if ever) stick to the itineraries I create, but it's nice to have an outline all the same, right?

Other than that, the hostel bed is reserved, the train tickets are paid for, and the route from the train station to the hostel is planned and accounted for. What more do I need, really?

You know, sometimes I think it's easy to get gutsiness and stupidity confused with one another. I LOVE the questions people ask when you're planning a trip somewhere that requires a ticket (either train or plane). "Oh, where are you going? With whom? By yourself? Wow! What are you going to do there?"

And that's the hilarity of the whole thing: I don't KNOW what I'm going to do there. I felt the same way about Galway. I didn't KNOW what I was going to do, I only knew that I needed to go. To be somewhere else. To see the world from the vantage of a foreign coffeeshop. To hear unfamiliar voices and feel unfamiliar winds and taste unfamiliar foods.

I think I make a terrible tourist, because the "sights" don't interest me. I go places to watch people, write nonsense in a journal, and eat out. If I'm alone, that's fine. At least I know that I'm gutsy.

I just need a vacation away from the familiar.

Yes, there's a bit of terror in my heart, right now. Am I really prepared for this? Is this one trip too many? Have I planned enough? Have I planned too much? Should I have packed more? Should I have packed less? What if I'm alone? What if I hate it? What if I get bored?

Impossible. I'm the Gutsy Little Shit. I make my own fun. Hear me roar.

-The GLS

(Next you hear from me, I will likely be blogging from the Vancouver Public Library. I'm going to try VERY hard to blog from Vancouver these next two nights, but it may prove impossible. If you don't hear from me there, you'll hear from me here when I return. See you in Canada, eh?)