LAURESQUE: traveling the world, kind of? • a guide • pt. 1

Hey. Hi. Hello. How are you? I've been updating this blog off and on for the past year - it's been irregular and inconsistent and I'm pretty sure that it'll stay that way for some more time. How I managed to post one (sometimes even two) post(s) a day - I do not know. It will remain a mystery. Some long gone discipline and willpower, perhaps. Or maybe I finally found a life away from my laptop. I suppose it is a mix of all of the above.

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I think it was the first of march, that's the day I started my blog four years ago. Four years. It's been a hell of a ride and I could dedicate a thousand, possibly two or three - heck tenthousand, words full of cliches and soppy details to all that happened over the past fourteenhundred-something days but it's not necessary. I've shared a lot and not-shared a lot. I have traveled both externally and internally. I did tons of yoga. I cried, sweat, smiled and barely slept. And now here I am: a working, somewhat functioning, struggling and stumbling nineteen-year-old, about to embark on a crazy, uncertain, exciting, terrifying journey.

I wrote a little about the stuff that crossed my mind before, while and after I booked my ticket to the other side of the world. That was, however, in dutch. Here's the gist of it:

'I was Very Scared. But then I decided to share my minds knotted, messy murmling. I talked about it. I told myself to breathe. I let go. Sort of. I took my fear by the hand. Shook it. Asked it: 'may I have this dance?' And now we're learning the Viennese Waltz. Or the Tango. It changes a little every day, but it is a wonderful dance, always. A real one, with missteps and errors and bruised toes. We float, we twirl and swirl and we live day by day. Counting one at a time. One two three four, cha cha cha.'

After turning my mind inside out and emptying it like a little bin, tossing the garbage of my brain all over the internet - I thought it might be useful to share some of my travel-planning as well. The slightly more organised (ha! organised - I wouldn't interpret that too literally) part of this journey I'm about to go on.

As I was figuring out what kind of stuff I had to take care of before heading out into the great wide world I felt extremely frustrated about not being able to find all of it in one place. I found websites talking about visa, other ones about vaccinations and different ones about booking tickets and packing bags but never all of it in one place. So I decided to take matters in my own hands and make sure there would be such a thing for those deciding to do something crazy after me. Hopefully this will be of use to some of you.

I'm going to divide the insane amount of information I'm about to throw at you in three parts:

- preparations

- documents

- packing

The preparation-partwill include: booking tickets (where, how, what's the cheapest way etc.), taking care of visa (what kind of visa do you need? how do you obtain them? what do they cost?), vaccinations (do you need vaccinations? are they expensive?), medication (do note: i am not a doctor, I'm just sharing the basic stuff you might want to bring), travel-insurance (do you need an insurance? etc.), fixing a credit card (for students) and more.

The part about documents will include: visa, tickets, travel documents, apps, websites, where to store your documents, how many copies to bring and some other stuff you might want to bring with you.

The packing-part will include: backpacks, packing cubes, packing tips, minimalism, travel comfort, clothing to bring and essential stuff for in your backpack.

I'm going to take make sure there will be links in my menu-bar and sidebar to all these blogpost and will tag them to make sure they're easily accessible. As I write the posts I will also create links within this one to direct you straight to the information you need. If you have ANY questions at all please ask them in a comment, an email or on instagram. I'm alway happy to help out. Also: there's a (not so) little widget at the bottom of this page through which you can search for (and book!) tickets. I booked all my tickets through Kiwi and they're the best :)

Last but not least: the main purpose of me writing all this is taking you along with me on this crazy journey. I'm going to be as open and honest and real as possible and I'll probably make some mistakes along the way. If I make those mistakes, please feel free to correct me. I'll fall on my face and that too I will share. For the sake of transparency. I enjoy reading travel blogs but I do get frustrated when all I see is perfect sunsets and hammocks on beaches. I'll probably post some of that crap too, because I LOVE creating beautiful, stylized stuff, but I'll share the other half of life as well. The darker side of the moon.

I'm excited to bring you with me to find out whatever lies behind my horizon.

Thanks for tagging along.

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