To plan or not to plan…
Do you know that feeling when you bought a ticket or booked a hotel or apartment in advance and you feel like you are already on holiday? I never plan where to go or what to put in my bag until I actually have my ticket or booking paid. And sometimes this “in advance” might be even 4 months(!).
But once it is done I start reading info about destination point everywhere, I ask my friends and contacts in social networks, I make maps with points of interest etc. And even if I know the city quite well and already have the fundamentals I still conduct my own research to find out whats new in the city or whats new for me in this city.
Its like a countdown to your happiness and nothing can compare with this. No planning or discussions with friends — it is all nothing for me.
So I am done with all the reading, planning and travelling and I am on the spot with my precise plan of where to go and what to see. And you know what? Sometimes I start feeling myself like in prison. I did a great job to find all these places and make this detailed agenda of a trip of your life but I feel like I have no right to step into not-in-the-list sweet tiny cafe on my way. I just have no right for it.
But the funny thing is that when it happens that I suddenly break in the way with no groundwork done on the contrary I feel like I missed something. Yes, I wake up whenever I want and I can go jogging and have my morning soy latte wherever is on my way. I am relaxed and I can spend hours of sitting outside with a book or wandering around. But I usually cant get rid of this feeling that I dunno something great about this city. And it always comes when I know that its already late for “research” and its time to go home.
So this is the main question for me when traveling: to plan or not to plan?
