I am a quirky person. My tastes and interests have never been mainstream. My cousin calls me a 'White Elitist' just because I enjoy going to ballets, operas, eating at michelin rated restaurants and reading classics. However I would like to reiterate that a lot of my interests aren't main stream and I am definitely not an elitist.
I like to travel. A lot. I caught this bug from my parents, who love to travel and explore new places. Like everything in this world group travel has its pro's and cons. The major con of traveling in a group is the lack of flexibility. I don't mind having company but traveling solo has its allure as I can stick to my own timetable, visit off-beat places and activities.
I have done three solo trips so far:
- New York City for christmas and new year of 2010. (this trip wasn't completely solo as I met up with friends in NYC)
- Glacier national park in Montana where I went hiking 100 miles on my own in the wilderness.
- Boston and Acadia national park during fall to do leaf peeping (its a term americans use when they travel to check out the glorious fall colors)
Getting my parents onboard is getting easier with each trip. When I went to NYC on my own my parents were super worried and gave me a call every half hour. Over time they became more supportive of my wanderings. Despite them being supportive in the past, I had, had reservations of their support for my upcoming trip. I waited until I got my visa to inform them which was two days prior departure. Their reaction to this news blew me away. Instead of being cross Dad told me to take care and enjoy and and mom went on chattering about her colleagues going to Europe. I must say I am impressed! I had expected them to flip out but they surprised me by being extremely supportive and dad even offered to send me money to cover the expenses of the trip. Its official! My parents are the coolest!!
Thus my solo road trip to Europe (the first among many I hope) began on 9th May at 3: 30 AM when the shuttle to the airport came to pick me up. Gone are the days when flight travel excited me. Long flights are extremely tiring and boring thanks to the cramped seats, crappy food and no sleep. I know these are first world problems, but getting assigned to a middle seat next to a snoring guy (I had an aisle seat before) to accommodate a newly married couple puts me in a funny mood. Is it fate's way of mocking at me for being single? Don't I get enough of it already? :(
The first leg from LA to Newark seemed to last forever . The second leg of the journey from Newark to Munich was comfortable, as I got my assigned aisle seat (my prayers got answered thankfully, else I would have killed the couple who took my seat!). I befriended an adorable 3 year old who looked exactly like the girl described in the nursery poem 'chubby cheeks'. She sat on my lap for 3 hours, played with me and cried murder when I gave her back to her dad. Awwww!
Seven hours later I landed in Munich got my passport stamped, ate lunch at airport, picked up the rental car and got lost in the narrow alleys thanks to road signs in German. Finally I reached the hotel and bought a parking ticket for 28 euro, because I realized I will never find parking on those narrow streets (San Francisco city streets felt huge in comparison and that's something). I spent the whole day curled up in bed instead of exploring Munich because I had gone without sleep for 36 hours. Peace \m/.
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