Up in the Air

The last hugs and kisses and farewell tears, and thats it - Im on my way around the world... As I make my way towards the plane, the last few meters are as usual laid out with HSBC ads. Only this time it couldnt have been more to the point - it features big photos of a traveller´s backpack, asking - will it bring you Fear? Adventure? or Debt? I almost feel like in Big Brother - how did they know that I will be starting my trip now and here and will be having similar thoughts running through my head? ... Either way, I just hope that I´ll stick to Adventure :)

A few hours into flight and it seems that just everything around me hints about about travelling, friendship and leaving home... Not sure whether it was a good idea to watch the latest G Clooney movie "Up in the air" - essentially an ironic, grown-up version of Love Actually - arguing that the most precious thing that we have in our lives is the people we love. .. It did of course bring back some of those farewell tears, but also made me realise how happy I am - to have my loved ones back at home cheering for me!

Somehow my movie selection isnt going very well - the British movie ´An Education´ features a schoolkid in the 50´s who says he´ll take a year off before Uni to go travelling and is therefore called a ´Teddyboy´ (for anyone interested, the Teddyboy emerged in the 1950s as Britain was coming to the end of post-war austerity and represented the first face of British youth culture). Well, how lucky am I to be living in 2010!

12 hours later we finally land in Rio. By the time I make it to the hotel, its late and dark, and its so hot and humid outside that even the pages of my Lonely Planet have gone into wrinkles, not even talking about my hair... Well, that´s what travelling is all about!