The Beginning

So.  It's started.  After two and half years of waiting and saving and preparing we've left France and now we're in England, waiting.  We've left our friends, our jobs, the life that we've known since the end of our first adventure in Italy and now we're just days away from our final departure into the unknown.  Our passports are at the Chinese visa centre in London being processed.  We pick them up on Tuesday and then fly to Estonia on Wednesday from where we will travel overland across Russia and Mongolia and on into China and the rest of the Far East.

For the moment I don't really realise the scale of what we're planning.  There was a slightly strange feeling on the plane from Paris to Luton, the impression this flight was somehow not the same as other flights we've been on recently.  Perhaps it was the fact that Florine's mum was there at the airport to wave us off, perhaps it was the fact that our usual weekend hand luggage had been replaced by bulky backpacks - but apart from that it doesn't feel so different.  Not yet. 

We keep asking each other when it will finally hit us, when we will come to understand that, if all goes to plan, we won't be seeing anyone we know for at least a year and that for the next twelve months the only possessions we will have will be what we carry on our backs.  We have agreed that the moment we get off the bus in Saint Petersburg at 8 o'clock in the morning after an eight-hour bus journey through the night will be the moment when we finally comprehend what we are letting ourselves in for - but I suspect that the flight from England to Estonia in just a few days time will probably also have some kind of effect.

Surprisingly, perhaps, I haven't thought too much about what I expect to find on this journey.  I want to write more about this later, along with some of my thoughts on why I want to go in the first place.  For the moment, though, it is enough to say that I am ready to go, that I have no doubts and all that is left for me to do is to count down the final days until we board that flight that will take us to the beginning of whatever adventures lie ahead.

Daniel

Comments

[Florinette]

Roselyne, peut etre des idees pour un troisieme voyage en Chine???

[roselyne]

votre voyage est vraiment super j'étais allée en Chine deux fois mais c'était plus superficiel et j'avais quand même adoré.Profitez en bien ça vous fera plein de souvenirs bisous Roselyne (et bon courage pour les pieds)

[Marie]

"the greatest ride of my life was about to come up (...)" Jack Kerouac.
Take care and enjoy !