But this trip was different. I was about to turn 30 years old in August of 2012, and for this birthday I wanted to do something special. Something crazy, or at least something that would make me feel crazy again, give me that giddy overwhelming excitement mixed with nausea of doing something totally out of my comfort zone, like the way you feel the first time you go somewhere by yourself, or the first time you book a one-way ticket, or the first time you move out of your country. So I decided to go all the way around the world, solo.
Of course I had many friends to visit along the way, and in fact, I had picked my cities based on where friends were living at the time. And since I had a full time job I could only escape into my adventure for 3 continents and two and a half weeks instead of 6 continents and many weeks. But it would be the first time I'd flown across the Pacific Ocean from Asia to the Americas, and my first time to fully circumnavigate the globe.
I debated this trip for about 2 months. Should I really do it by myself? Was it worth the money (I had just finished paying off my credit cards one month before)? Would it be more exhausting that it was enjoyable? The final decision came after weighing the alternatives (flying someplace exotic for a week, coming back home, flying to the US for a week, coming back home), which didn't sound that exciting, and suddenly coming into a bit of money when a distant relative passed away. It was still going to cost a lot, but when I rationalised it that with the pretty good job I had I could pay it off in 3 months, it seemed like the right choice to make to ensure 30 came around with a bang.
Therefore, armed with a speedy Mac and a speedy credit card, I booked myself from Zurich to Singapore to Seoul to Seattle to Oklahoma City and back to Switzerland in 18 days. I don't know if it was coincidence or hidden meaningful pattern that every destination except home started with the letter S. I would have to ponder that along the way.
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