Spoiler alert: It didn't suck.
The plan: accompany Jess on her journey into a year's worth of traveling with a group called Remote Year.
Remote Year, short version: a group of 75 people who work remotely, i.e. from their computers, through use of the internet in some capacity, in various different industries, who have the capability to continue doing so from anywhere in the world.
Jessica has this ability, and was accepted into the program. 12 cities, 10 countries, one city per month for a full year.
City #1: Prague, Czech Republic.
I was sold at that very moment, having heard nothing but good things about the wonders of Prague, its historical intactness, its friendly people, and the fact that beer is cheaper than water. So we began planning. For my part, I planned a three week trip - away from clients, away from home, away from the U.S. and all my obligations.
Another spoiler alert: It somehow managed to be a rousing success. I'll get to that later.
But first let me take you back to Tuesday, May 17th: my arrival in Indianapolis, T-minus 3 days until we land in Dublin, Ireland. I had packed the bare minimums, Jess was in the process of moving/packing.
For all the numerous ways we are vastly different, Jess and I are extremely alike in a few facets. One of them is our total and complete inability to do anything besides procrastinate wildly.
Which is precisely what she did.
Bogged down by what I can only imagine to be the extreme stressfulness of uprooting her life for an entire year, her moving and packing efforts had been derailed by a cold. I was only slightly unprepared for what was in store.
Her apartment in shambles, we set to work. Over the next 48 hours, we packed, visited with three separate parents (some multiple times), tossed a couch that was much larger than us both into a basement single-handedly (double-handedly?) whilst laughing hysterically, caravanned down Indianapolis highways in three separate vehicles with the remainder of her worldly possessions, and threw otherwise valuable items into a trash shoot with reckless abandon. Jess said difficult goodbyes.
And on the eve of our journeys, she was finally packed, and ready to take on the world.
Thursday, May 19th: Chicago
We got up around 6 a.m. and put the finishing touches on everything, and said farewell to Jess's apartment of 2 years.
Our flight into Dublin left from Chicago, so we rented a car in advance to drive to the airport. We lamented missing the historic 100th running of the Indy 500, but were excited for the adventures to come.
We drove the grueling, traffic-filled 3 hours from Indianapolis to Chicago with little incident, aside from a missed toll (or two).
Then the real fun began.
We had seen the TSA troubles going on at O'Hare in the days prior to our arrival. So despite the fact that our plane didn't take off until 3:30 p.m., we made sure to arrive in Chicago at 11:30 a.m. Unfortunately, everyone else on our plane, aside from the staff, had the same idea. So did the news crews.
After two hours waiting to check in and a good hour in the security line, we were one step closer. We grabbed food and drinks and were finally on the plane.
Side note: I do not recommend ever flying Aer Lingus. And no, that's not some type of clever euphemism I came up with, it is a real airline, and they are pretty shitty. No free drinks on a cross-ocean flight? No apologies for causing a two hour wait line? And a tray table so shitty that vodka was sacrificed a mere thirty minutes into the flight?
Just don't do it.
And thus, we said farewell to the United States:
Friday, May 20th: Dublin and Amsterdam
After our 7 & 1/2 hour flight with approximately 3 hours of sleep between the both of us, we landed in Dublin, Ireland at 5:30 a.m. local time (12:30 a.m. EST).
We had a six hour layover in Dublin, and weren't too tired, so we ventured into a small university town to pass at least some of the time.
City skyline:
We saw Dublin Castle:
And a badass statue:
Aaaaaand whatever this thing is:
We went for coffee around 7 a.m. local time and reflected on how unreal everything already felt. Note: you cannot actually order your coffee "Irish" at 7 a.m., not even in Ireland.
After a few hours and some random wanderings, we meandered back to the airport.
It was quite miserable. Although we did get to order our first beers and were pleasantly surprised by the surrounding talent (unless all the men were dual hallucinations that we were experiencing from extreme exhaustion), we were also dead on our feet. By the time of our next flight, it was roughly 4-5 a.m. back home for both of us. We powered through and I promptly passed out on the hour and a half flight to Amsterdam.
Don't worry, Jess had a Guinness for both of us in Dublin:
Exhaustion aside, we arrived!
The i.amsterdam exhibit at Schiphol Airport:
We hopped on a bus and headed to a party hostel that I had stayed at 5 years prior: The Flying Pig Beach Hostel in Noordwijk, Holland (pronounced Nord-vike). It was my hope that we were not too old for a party youth hostel with a bar downstairs.
Of course we hit the beach nearby to celebrate our arrival and our first night overseas:
Also on the bus ride over, we made quick friends with Aaryn and Curtis, two Canadians beginning their travels in the exact same spot we were. Sadly, I'm not sure we managed a single picture all together despite our excursions...
In any case, pictures of hostels are usually few and far between, and this time is no exception. Here's what little I got of the Pig this time around.
Bar area(ish);
Bookcases in the smoking room:
The bar from the view of the smoking room:
The closest I got to an actual pic of the bar and our wonderful bartender, Ray:
We powered through night one, partying it up appropriately at the hostel until things became a complete and utter shitshow, resulting in a fight between locals and visitors, and a very exhausted collapse on Jess and I's end.
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Apologies for the super short first update, but I needed to get the juices flowing before too much time back home passed. Unfortunately I have other obligations this evening that I must attend to. Likely to do more on this tomorrow.
Until then!
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