What now?

It has been two months since I left for Europe, and almost a month since I’ve returned. In the correspondences I’ve been having with people I’ve met and have returned, they too still want to be travelling. I’m no exception, and that should have been the case.

Originally, I intended to travel to Japan and the Philippines for the second half of my half gap year; ie. mid-October to about late November. However, several factors (all of it financial or economic, on personal and macro levels) have conspired against this, which means I have to defer this trip… for now.

As for the future of this blog, I still want it to be a journal of my travels, especially into 2009 and beyond. Whenever I have an inkling of a pending trip, then it will show up here. If I look for anything even remotely interesting in the world of travel, then I might post about that too. In the meantime, my main blog is being constantly updated, so I’m not exactly idle. See you back on the road!

A Map for Saturday

I interrupt my trip updates with an opportunity for you to be inspired to get out there and travel. Being a lifetime member of Hostelling International Canada, I get the occasional e-mail about upcoming events. One of them had been flagged in my inbox, but unfortunately, the event has already passed.

What you could have attended August 28 at the Vancity Theatre was a showing of A Map for Saturday, a travel documentary in which HBO producer Brook Silva-Braga (who was scheduled to be in attendance at the showing) leaves his job and travels around the world for almost a full calendar year. I stumbled on this in the spring while flicking through channels. By then, I had already resigned from my job and was slowly building my UK/Ireland itinerary. Silva-Braga, with all his filming gear, asks travellers he meets why they’re travelling; their responses were candid. Silva-Braga turns the camera on himself too, opening up the way I’m doing with this blog. When I finished watching, I just wanted to get out, right then and there, and never stop.

If you’re on the fence, wondering if you should go travel, for whatever the length, here’s the trailer. If the last person, a 73-year-old from the States, doesn’t get you motivated, I don’t know what will.

Introduction.

It has been more than a week since I’ve left my job, which I have done for almost five years. What follows is, for me, a journey of discovery.

The British have this term called the “gap year” [wiki], where twelve months doing anything but work is almost a rite of passage. Almost always, it involves travel, and is done done before or after university. For me, as a Canadian, I didn’t have the chance for a gap year, even after finishing my undergrad, mainly because I had no funds to support myself.

Now that the opportunity has presented itself, I want to take at least six months off, and some of that will involve travel. And that’s the inspiration of part of the title of this blog: a half gap year is better than none at all.

It starts right away, as I’m heading to Las Vegas on Thursday with my cousin and his friends for his bachelor trip. I then take a roadtrip to Seattle and Portland later this month.

And in August, I fly to Glasgow to start a 38-day trip to Scotland, Ireland, Wales, London, and Paris. This is one I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and now I get the chance.

Expect photos, descriptions, and general awe as I make my way around all these places. It will be fun. Let the half gap begin!