Month: February 2016

Typical Flynn.. Quack !

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Ahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah. 

IF I could stick to a plan it’d be a minor miracle, people would write it up as one of “man’s greatest achievement”, pigs would orbit the globe like satellites, hell would relocate to Antarctica. 

As much as I proclaim to love scheduling, and structure, and how I want to be more organised and have a real sense of direction, I don’t. I don’t want any of that. I bold faced lie to myself. 

I made THE MOST BASIC OF PLANS. The most vague outline of a plan, with as much wiggle room as is humanly possible for a plan to have. Yet somehow, someway, I’ve managed to wriggle my way all the way out of it. 

The plan was as follows :

  1. Berlin
  2. Brussels 

Any amount of days you want. Any accommodation. Any tourist attractions. There was complete flexibility. Do whatever you want, Flynn. 

I made it to step one, and Berlin is pretty damn fantastic might I add. But I won’t be making it to step two! 

I was lying in bed for a few hours last night thinking to myself.. “I don’t really want to go to Brussels.” For literally no logical reason whatsoever. No bad review, no worries about the city, nothing. Like a child in his terrible twos because he didn’t want a bath for no logical reason other than because I don’t want one, I spat my dummy out and that was that… The bath thing happened quite a lot according to my mum. I have no recollection of this… Obviously.  

So here we are having irrationally cancelled 3 bus journeys, 1 hostel, then whimsical booked 1 flight and 1 hostel. We’re off to Barcelona! Why?! I have literally no idea. 

I adore Barcelona. 

This is going to be my fourth time visiting, so I’ll be honest, I don’t know how much there’s left for me to see. One thing is certain though; I’m going to enjoy it. It really feels like home. Anyway, I guess this is no different to any other times I’ve decided to travel: based on absolutely no reason other than “because.”
I guess somethings will never change, I’m just not meant to plan the finer details of the long term. By long term I mean anything other than this present moment. Clearly I’m completely incapable of thinking any further ahead. Maybe that’s not something I need to change about myself, but rather I need to embrace it. If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck.. It’s probably a duck. 

I’m a duck. 

Flynn! X

Controlled Chaos.

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I won’t lie, I’ve been bored lately. Some people will try and make out that Erasmus is all sunshine and rainbows, it’s not. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a lot of great laughs this past month. But this isn’t some fantasy world just like at home or anywhere else, you can get a bit lost from time to time.

I think I know why I’ve felt like this though, it’s not that I’ve not had anything to do.. There’s always things to do. But for so long I’ve had an achievable short term goal; finish assignments, plan lessons, work in Spain, etc… Now I’m lacking that. I’m not overly busy, suffocating under my workload. Nor do I have a real target to work for- obviously fluency, but that’s a more lucid goal. So I’ve been kind of just coasting, seeing what happens. I don’t really like that. 

It’s time to break that spell. 

For some bizarre reason, even though term only started 3 weeks ago, I have a week off. Thanks France! So I’m off to explore some of Europe. Paris, Berlin, and Brussels. I “planned” everything very last minute. By last minute I mean I’m sat waiting for the bus with the worst wifi known to man, looking up how to get from Paris Maillot Bus station into Paris city centre. Yeah. As much as I claim to crave routine, I detest planning. There’s something I just don’t like about scheduling every step of a journey weeks before I’ve set off – it’s wrong. How do I know I want to see the Louvre 3 o’clock next Tuesday, I might be hungry then!? Nope, planning trips is not for me.

People, such as my mum (thank god she’ll never read this, I think she’d have a heart attack with worry!), seem to think it’s bizarre that I’m more than happy to travel by myself with little to no thought about how/where/when I’m doing things. There’s something that relaxes me about it though… People seem to have a fear of “what if I get lost?” “What if this happens…” “What if that happens…” What if you do? But what if you stumble across something awesome you otherwise wouldn’t have? Getting lost in big cities is amazing, but it’s all about your perspective. If you spend all of your time face down in a map, not looking at the world around you, you’ll be pissed when you end up down a dead end street.

To me, it’s the little things that make the trip special, I can find better photos on google than I’m going to take. But they can’t tell me how it feels to be there in that moment, the vibe, the smells, the sounds. They’re what matter to me. I couldn’t tell you what sights I’m going to see in Berlin, I barely know what’s there. As for Brussels, the only thing I know is that they have good chocolate. The discovery is part of the adventure.

At 6:30 I woke up on 4 hours sleep hating the world. 7:25 I got on the bus to a lonely bus driver blaring Eye of the tiger out of his radio, I smiled. My mood switched. At 8:05 I sat in the the bus station and realised I’ve forgotten my phone charger. Alls I could do was laugh at myself. Moron. Just as daily life has its ups and downs, this journey will too. Life isn’t flawless like Instagram will have you believe, and that’s absolutely perfect with me.

À bientôt, 

Flynn! X