The amount of planning for this adventure – like anything that is going to be 11 months of complete adventure – is something I have never thought about in this detail before. Whether this includes researching cultures, learning languages, understanding different events and more its all been a blur so far…and we are 128 days to go and still 6 pages of to do lists…
Making plans for this size of trip I feel are necessary because of what I am trying to achieve. However, in one way I wish I could just galavant around and not have any plans. Just get on long bus journeys and get off when I liked what the welcome sign in the town looks like. Or meet people and decide to go travelling with complete strangers in a direction that is unknown – even when you start travelling. Directions for “Around the World in 80 Events” are so important to help make the trip run smooth.
I have started to plan every day – to make sure a few things are kept in check:
- Financial – I have a daily budget for certain places. The whole budget needs be well managed and take into account unexpected issues – such as hostel bookings not confirmed or I am robbed – drastic chat – but i need to be prepared for that.
- Events Cancelled – I need to make sure I follow my 80 event plan and keep on track to meet the events and if not researching where the next events are.
- Know what day might hold – I have been putting together addresses for all the accommodation to ensure I know how I get to places and where everything is. Also – whats the rest days…
Planning to this detail is therefore bringing its own challenges but those challenges are there to make this trip successful and even more fun to organise (I say while looking at a yearly daily planner on my wall…) The travelling side of the planning has been the most interesting – to get to 30 different countries. This includes 17 different flights with 14 different airlines and some are not booked as yet.
Here’s a closing point to this blog post very quickly – plans are there to guide you in the direction you want…but remember to enjoy the moment. So even although I am focused on building strong plans I need to be ready for some flexibility to let the adventure – be a true adventure of the events industry, the world and everything else in between…