And so it begins...

My first trip out of the country was to London. Well, that's where it started. That was the destination on my roundtrip airline ticket. The return date, however, was five months after I left, so where I went from London was anyone's guess. I had a vague idea of traveling overland through Africa, and therefore got all the requisite shots. Having no real idea where I was going, and no desire to do any actual research, I packed for all possible climates.


So it was I found myself in the London Heathrow airport, sagging under 50 pounds of every possible thing I might need for every possible scenario for an unplanned five month trip.
Having never been on foreign soil before, much less alone, and not having made any plans, tentative or otherwise, I realized I had no idea what to do next.

So I promptly sat down and cried.
I had always thought of myself as an adventurer. It was always my plan for life to venture forth into the world and explore and experience. What I am not, is a "details" girl. Where to stay? How to get around? What is the exchange rate? Details. These were not my specialty. They did not interest me. They are like brushing my teeth: I do it twice a day because I enjoy having teeth, I enjoy having the tools to chew my food, but I do not enjoy brushing my teeth. I had worked and saved my money for months; I had gotten some shots and a big fat Africa guidebook and a backpack, and a bunch of inappropriate crap to put in it and a roundtrip ticket from Boston to London with a return date five month hence. Clearly I was prepared. I was a traveler. All that was left was to figure out what a traveler does, exactly.

I thought very seriously about going back to the ticket counter and getting on the next flight to Boston. Seriously, but briefly. Then I wiped my tears, wrangled my ridiculous pack onto my shoulders, and went to a hotel reservation desk. I booked a hostel and bought a ticket for the Tube, and off I went...traveling.

I spent 3 days in London, much of it sleeping, but with enough waking hours interspersed to see what one is expected to see in London. I bought a one way ticket to Cape Town, South Africa. I would travel overland from Cape Town to Nairobi, then fly back to London.

It was a 12 hour flight, dinner and breakfast served on the plane. We flew over Mt. Kilimanjaro. I did not want the flight to end. When we landed, I would have to start all over again in another foreign place. This was TRAVEL, after all.
The plane did land, and I got off of it. Here I was, in South Africa! The beginning of an adventure! I was a traveler!

Except...they wouldn't let me in. A TRAVELER to South Africa cannot enter the country and obtain a visa without a ticket out of South Africa. I had bought a one way ticket. Naturally, I had not looked into visas or immigration laws.

Details... Cape Town, South Africa