departure
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA
CHRISTINA
It felt like a birth - the pulse, the energy and the renewal. Our dream of having a relaxing departure, saying goodbye to a few friends and taking a walk on the beach with a breakfast burrito was usurped by what felt like urges of energy pushing us out into the world.
The contractions were strong. We didn’t sleep for 2 days straight before we left, our bodies propped up by coffee and sugar, in and out of that fuzzy place of hysteria, exhaustion, frustration and uncontrollable laughter we packed up everything we had and went back and forth to a 6’x8’ box on the second floor of a big storage complex. Looking at our Tetris cube full of “things,” I could only recall the George Carlin bit about storage. It was a feat of logic getting everything in there, and as my friends know, I loved stacking it ;)
We just got married in June after only 6 months of planning a big Greek wedding. When we came back to our busy work life in San Diego, we knew we needed to act now, or never. In a leap of faith, roughly one hectic month before departure, we gave notice at our amazing beach house rental, finished our work projects, transitioned our jobs to be able to work while traveling, sold all of our furniture except a mirror, sold our treasured car and packed everything that was left into boxes and then into storage. Did I mention all of this happened without much planning in a span of maybe 4 weeks?
For the past few years we’ve been feeling an itch to leave San Diego and go out into the world; to go and live our dream of being global citizens. Having lived in arguably the best places in the United States (NYC, Hawaii and San Diego), we were wondering what and where could possibly be next? San Diego always felt like a middle point for us – it’s where we met and it’s both cosmopolitan and beachy. We kept waiting for a sign but instead it became ever more apparent that it’s not a location but a process and the time was upon us.
Having no fixed assets or children, a shift in lifestyle could make it all possible. What if we could work while traveling? Explore what it means to be living in different places? Reconnect with our roots and discover the ever-changing sacred unfolding? Maybe it wasn’t a place but the place is in motion.
On the way to the airport in LA we had to pull the car over because I had an adrenal meltdown and was carsick. I slept the entire 10-hour flight except for “feeding times” because Air France serves champagne and really good wine with their meals.
After a very long journey and an overnight coffee binge in the Athens airport (no sleeping allowed!) we boarded our first flight at 5am to Santorini. On the first page of the Aegean Air magazine was this quote:
“Travelling in the company of those we love is home in motion.” - James Henry Leigh Hunt (poet 1784-1855)
We were on our way.
JULIO
As our journey came closer the path intensified. Getting rid of a lot of stuff, packing up, selling our car, putting everything in storage. It was not an easy thing to do but we somehow managed. However, when the time finally came, we made it to LAX without a minute to spare literally jamming all our belongings in the storage unit shortly before departing. The hardest part was saying goodbye to my mom and step-dad who were kind enough to drive us to the airport. We flew Air France which absolutely blew my mind - from how they orchestrate boarding the plane to the food and service, this was no American airline. There was champagne, cheese, baguettes, wine, food choices, neck pillows and just a general sense of enjoyment on the airplane that I haven't seen in years flying any U.S. airlines. The meals were fantastic. The service was incredible. I enjoyed this flight more than most flights I have ever taken. Air France. SOLD.
We had quite a long layover at Charles de Gaulle airport which was punctuated by a pretty bad money exchanging experience with Travelex which took almost a month to resolve. Travelex encouraged us to put money on a credit card for a better exchange rate for which the funds were simply never transferred. A warning to other travelers: be very weary of any money exchanging offices at airports. On a lighter note, I found it a little humorous that all the stores at the Paris airport were selling sweets, chocolate, macaroons, coffee, scarves and pretty much nothing else. Very different from the way we shop in American airports. The French definitely seem a little more self-important (in a healthy way), much more fashion conscious, dignified and simply are enjoying things in general more than we Americans. After many croissants and coffees we finally scooted onto our next flight to Athens and the adventure really began.
