Back in the Saddle

Okay, I fully intend to get back at the whole blogging thing while I'm away, and continue when I get back. Things got crazy the last couple of months, but I'm hoping when I get back, I'll have acquired some time managment skills. Either that or have learned to say, "sorry, I don't have time for that".

I"m pretty excited about my upcoming trip to Europe. I am leaving tomorrow evening at 8pm. This trip is weird, because whereas last time I did go by myself, I basically met up with my tour group very shortly after I arrived, and for the few days I wasn't with my tour group, I was staying with a friend in London. This time, I am COMPLETELY on my own. Which is scary, but at the same time exciting because I'll be able to do whatever I want.

The things that worry me the most about travelling alone are:
-having to eat alone in restaurants. I'm pretty sure I"ll have to get over this quickly, because there is only so much street food a person can eat. But the thought of going into a sit down restaurant and saying "ein, bitte", and then proceeding to unknowingly order pig knuckles or something is a little worrisome.
-figuring out trains. I'm a person that likes to plan, and although I think I've gotten the trains basically figured out, the fact that everything is going to be in a language i have very little knowledge of, is scary. I fear I might end up someplace I did not mean to be. There is a picture of me in my head standing in a train station next to my luggage, with my arms up in the air like, "whhhhere the shit am I?" Situations like that are a whole lot more amusing when you are with someone else. But alas.
-not having anybody to say "how cool is this?" too. I guess technically I could say it to anyone that is beside me, and hope that they speak English, but it is always nice to have someone to share really amazing experiences with. I guess this is why I will take hundreds of pictures and force people to sit through them. Yes, I am one of those people.
-I won't be in any of the pictures, unless I do the holding out the camera with one arm thing, which I probably will do, but how dumb is that? Then it'll just be like, "and now here is a picture of my giant head, and the top of the Alps in the background".

I guess those last two aren't really fears, just stuff I've thought about. Anyway, it's not like travel writers (one day?) travel with anyone. They are usually by themselves. I think I might take Bill Bryson's Neither Here Nor There, just so I can take comfort in this fact. He spends half the book drunkenly (albeit happily) wandering European cities by himself (at night), and while I don't think I will go quite so far as to get intoxicated and hope that i find my way back to my hotel, I will do my share of wandering.

Anyway, I guess it's all just part of the adventure, and I really cannot wait. I'm going to do a whole lot of walking, a whole lot of picture taking, sleeping, reading and writing. Fear be damned.