Fear and Exhilaration

Day 29

Spring break: you think about it in the U.S. as a wonderful respite in the middle of the semester that makes it bearable to continue the drudge towards finals.

Before I cam out here I didn't really do any research on when the school holidays were. So you could probably understand why I was pretty shocked when I was putting assignments into my planner and realized that there was a two week break during the fourth and fifth weeks of class.

Yeah, two weeks off when we just started. I mean don't get me wrong, I was excited but at the same time it stressed me out beyond belief.

At home I hadn't really thought about how terrifying this trip would be. I was thinking to the flight and that was about it. Everyone was constantly telling me "oh you're so brave" but I wasn't really thinking about it, I would shrug it off and just think about how simple it would be.

Then I got here.

I had a harder time adjusting than I thought I would. It was like combining all the fear and excitement of moving to college with the panic of not being fluent in the language around you. My home sickness the first few weeks was awful. I tried not to wallow in it, I went out with a few acquaintances, made some friends and explored the city, but in the end I was constantly anxious on the inside.

And during all of this I learned that I had little to no time to plan what I was doing for a two week break. I half-heartedly started putting feelers out on couch surfing about visiting Vienna and Venice (one week each). I just felt so discouraged because I hadn't found anyone who wanted to travel with me and I wasn't getting any positive response from couch surfing.

I was tearing myself up with guilt because I really wasn't feeling the trip (plus everything kept falling through) and yet I felt obligated to travel because I was here and it's a once in a life opportunity. I remember saying "if I don't travel then what was the point in me coming here? everyone will be disappointed, including me".

I ended up frustratedly praying about it. God's peace washed over me and I had the unmistakeable impression that I shouldn't go on the trip I was planning. The relief was like a load off my shoulders. I settled myself down into the peace of staying home and doing homework over the break. I accepted it and I felt fine.

The next morning I woke up with an infectious idea in my head: I shouldn't go to Vienna and Venice but I should go somewhere else. I felt like I needed some motivation so I typed "spontaneous traveling" into youtube and let some random couple inspire me. They told me about Ryan Air which is like the SouthWest of europe, cheap flight.

I typed Innsbruck to London in the Ryan air site and it ended up that right under the London option Dublin popped up. And that was it. I was going to Dublin. I have been taking a class on Ireland and I had been talking about going there for a while and now it was happening. I looked at flights, trains (to the salzburg airport), and hostels all at the same time and worked out what would be the most bang for my buck.

And within an hour of waking up I had a flight, train tickets, and a hostel for 7 days in Dublin. I was pumped! I jumped up and down and let out a few "woop"s. I had done something totally spontaneous and I felt great about it. For around 280 euro I have 7 days in Dublin!

It was like a high. I wasn't afraid. I wasn't anxious. I was powerful. I made this happen. I was so excited.

I booked my train ticket way earlier than my flight so I can explore Salzburg too and I am pretty stoked about all the great pictures I'm going to be taking.

My hostel is pretty awesome too. It has great reviews and it gives free city tours, free pub crawl tour, free dinner on wednesday, free breakfast, free wifi, plus lots of other stuff and it looks clean and really friendly. I am excited to meet new people and have this exciting experience

I leave on Sunday and I'll get back in the a.m. on the Monday the school starts again. I am so excited to travel to such a beautiful city with so much history. Honestly I think this is a much better plan, my first real trip here being to a country that speaks English makes me a lot less anxious.

I can't tell you guys enough how thrilled I am for this trip. Sorry that this post didn't have any pictures, I haven't taken any recently, next post will be all about Dublin and should be sporting some dope pics.

With Love,
Carly