Monday, August 27, 2012

European Adventure

Have I mentioned that Viv and I fly to Europe in 10 days?
It's all we've been talking and thinking about since we decided back in January to do it this year, not next time or when we magically have the money just lying around, but grab 2012 with both hands and stop wishing and start doing.

I know it's going to be a time of high expectations, contradictions and some let downs. For example, I cannot wait for the 6th of September to actually arrive, and I am so impatient with the days dragging on and on. And yet I love the anticipation, the delicious knowledge that it's still ahead of us, and almost don't want this waiting to end.

I know it will be the stuff of dreams, and yet the reality will probably never measure up to the wistful portrayals of 'Europe' I've seen in movies and blogs and heard in songs. After all, for me its the exotic, the different, and yet for those who live there, it's just another city with the same problems we all face.

We'll be staying in hostels, cheap hotels and with my extended family all throughout the continent, from Portugal to to France to Italy and Austria. It's been 8 years since I've seen my aunts, uncles and cousins so I am pretty nervous about staying with them without my parents being there - its now just me, and since Viv can't speak Romanian, I'll be the translator and mediator of jokes and questions.

I know I need to lower my expectations, because I don't want to be disappointed with the reality. I am trying to remember that despite seeing the Eiffel Tower, and enjoying croissants and quaint cobblestoned streets, we will still get tired, grumpy, frustrated, annoyed and that its ok for that to happen. I almost feel like because its 'Europe', it must be a magical land where everything is romantic and historic and imbued with significance that one simply cannot experience crappy emotions like that. So I'm doing my best to remind myself to be realistic!

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