promised plog: you choose my european adventure!

Posted by Pico on January 7, 2011 · 4 Comments 

2011 is the year of living dangerously. Of daring to be different. Of trying new things. Of uncertainty and change.

It is also the year I am relinquishing control. I talked about welcoming 2011 here, and ‘setting a goal that scares you’ was on that list. Well, I’ve decided. You may remember me mentioning that I’m going on exchange to Europe from August 2011-February 2012. (Unsurprising really if you do, because it’s something I like to not-so-casually throw into all conversations. ;))

And here it is. This year I will let YOU choose my European Adventure! Plan my Eurotrip! Be my travel guide! My guiding star! My beacon in a time of darkness! It’ll be like R.L Stine’s choose your own adventure Goosebumps books, only without the weird, gross, scary ending!

(Wait, what?)

THE IDEA

Is there any place in Europe you dream about seeing? That you’ve been to and loved to the core of your being? That you saw on a travel show, a travel guide, a post card and you’ve been itching to plant your feet in? Had a meal at a restaurant that changed your day, your life even? A museum you fell in love with, a bridge you get a kick out of crossing, a statue you’d like to kiss (haha or a person, you know, if that’s your thing)?

Have you read a book and wanted to do the same things the characters did? To even BE the characters? (Lakes and Pride and Prejudice springs to mind here.)

Tell me what or what it is, and I’ll go there. I’ll go there for both of us.

I did the maths and I’m there for about 24 weeks. If I visit a different place every two weeks (do-able), that gives you twelve locations to play with. At least. If there’s a few in London, for example, I can expand the list because I can hit up more than one thing in one weekend.

THE SPECIFICS

Twelve cities/towns/countries. Twenty four weeks. One girl. You map out her life.

I’ll be studying in Maastricht in the Netherlands, so you may want to use there as a starting point.

I will be posting photos and blogging the adventures (or should I say PLOGGING) as soon as I’ve crossed a place off.

THE RULES

There are no rules. Ok there are two rules. One: Stick to the European Continent. Two: Don’t choose something like ‘Get high in Amsterdam’. This probably makes me the biggest dag ever, but I don’t do drugs. 😉

AREN’T I FREAKING OUT?

Yes. A lot. This makes me nervous and supertremendouslyexcited all at once. It’s the feeling I get when I’m standing on a super high diving tower and I don’t want to jump but my friends are waiting and have already done it and I do it and it is ALWAYS worth the terror.

As Alex Day, (infamous/hilarious reader of twilight, muso and entertainer extraordinaire) once said to me (on youtube):

‘One of the things I think about when I’m trying to psych myself up into doing something really scary is: I could just not do this thing. I used to be really nervous about like kissing girls. Because you know how you build it up to this one big moment and you’re like I’ve gotta kiss this girl now and if I don’t it’ll be really bad and I’ll be really disappointed and whatever. But really, there’s not just that one moment, you’ve got like all day or all night or you know a weekend…So you can just pick and think, ultimately I don’t have to do this right now. And that makes me feel better about doing it.

Somewhere within that excited British ramble is something I’ve since remembered whenever I find myself in a situation where I’m pushing boundaries. However little it might seem to someone else, changing your life is a big deal. Moving out of your comfort zone can be terrifying. I used to be paralysed by fear growing up, until my teenage years when I walked on fire and things started to change. (A story for another day). I’m still a nervous person, and I am infamous for my stress attacks, but I am trying to get better. A year or two ago setting myself a challenge like this would have SCARED ME SENSELESS. I’m still scared, but it’s a good kind of fear, the kind that gets you moving and motivated, you know?

Was that an attempt to briefly ressurrect ‘Quote that Friday’ from its silent grave? Yes. Also a plug for Alex Day. You should follow the link to the video if you’re interested- it’s him explaining his philosophy right before bungee jumping. A little bit hilarious, a little bit profound.

So GET IN ON IT! I don’t mean for that to sound aggressive, rather enthusiastic. Sometimes it’s hard to tell in capslock.

Edit 8 Jan 2011: I mirror-posted this on my old blog, and my Livejournal writer friend aekubo, got me onto the idea that it could be fun to include locations in books too! Writing AWESOME! in caps really can’t convey how AWESOME! I reckon this will be. 🙂

Filed under Life, Themed Days · Tagged with alex day, choose my european adventure, goals, new year, quote that friday