Planning the Journey

Well, the time has come to start thinking about where and when to start off my new journey into the unknown. I decided a few weeks ago that May 6/7 would be the weekend I would leave my flat in Amsterdam and begin the life of a homeless backpacker for the forseeable future. Initially I was going to start off with some time in the Balkans of Southern Europe to check out a few European countries I have not yet visited, Bulgaria, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia before heading Eastwards on the long journey towards China and beyond.

But, a series of announcements from an organisation that has heavily influenced my travel over the last few years added some new ideas into the plan. The FAW (Football Association of Wales) scheduled a couple of European friendly games during May as well as a competitive U21 match in Estonia. The temptation of a return trip to one of my favourite European countries and one of the finest cities around, Tallin, was too much to resist. What a fine place to start and what a fine date to choose, May 10th, just a few days into my journey. And a fine chance to catch up with my friends from Wales before I embark on my trail to the Far East.

To make best use of my time during the first month, I decided to fly to Estonia and hang around for a few days to settle into the backpacking lifestyle again before meeting up with friends and going to the match. Easy I thought, but then inconveniently I found out that Estonian-Air stopped their direct flights from Amsterdam to Tallin in January ! Worse still, Air-Baltic have also stopped their direct flights from Amsterdam to Riga, what's going on here? This should have been easy! Not to worry, some research unearthed two other options: Helsinki with Blue1 or Lithuanian-Air to Vilnius. I chose the latter, not because the last time I flew with them we had some attractive and apparently famous singer and her band on the plane, whose name I forget now anyway. But because they were cheaper and flew at a more convenient time! So Vilnius it is that has became the starting point for my new voyage of discovery.

It was only a few hours later that the significance of starting my trip in Vilnius began to sink in. It was around 3½ years ago I ended my last long term travel stint in and that was in Vilnius. That time I finished off my trip there and jumped on a bus back home towards the UK, stopping off only in Amsterdam, which I had left some 6 months earlier. I realised that this time I was going to be doing almost the reverse of my previous journey. And how did this come about anyway? Just a set of circumstances that strangely and unexpectedly led to me starting in Vilnius: my start date; FAW schedule a game in Estonia that week; no flights to Estonia; no flights to Latvia; end up flying to Lithuania, Vilnius! I had not intended this, the thought had not even crossed my mind. Yet here it was my new journey was going to begin where I left off the last time, Vilnius.

Maybe it's some kind of sign? Have I been somehow coerced into starting off from Vilnius? As if to continue where I left off before, a continuation of my previous journey? That journey that took me through so many new and wonderful countries; during which I encountered so many beautiful experiences, cultures and through which I met many beautiful people and made many new friends around the globe.

Maybe this is my return ticket, part two of my earlier trip that took me from the Far East back to Europe, from Japan to Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, China, Russia, Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania? Now I will be returning, leaving Lithuania as I head back overland to China and beyond to SE Asia, crossing new lands once more. And another thing, the last memorable person I met on that trip, the last person I spoke to and hugged goodbye as I left my hostel in Vilnius was a lovely Japanese girl named Akiko. Now, before I leave for Vilnius, one of the last people I will say goodbye to will be a friend and her goldfish, one of which is named Akiko! Conincidence? Maybe there is a message somewhere in all this, I don't know. But one thing I do know as I prepare to leave is that if I experience even half the pleasures and delights I did during 2002, I will once again have an amazing and memorable time.

Follow my journey on here from May 6 onwards.