Let Me Introduce This Blog
As of now, this blog will be the official Trip Blog. Previously, I was just posting news about the blog on my RN Travelogue, which is my blog about the adventures that my wife and I have as travel nurses. From this point on, posting about our upcoming trip will be put on this blog only.
As can be seen below, there have been a few entries about the trip. I feel as though it needs a proper introduction, though. Essentially, as everyone should know, our country is gripped in an economic "hardship," and as such, there have been few if any travel nursing positions available. Jess and I have been fortunate to have been employed thus far in 2009 in Tucson, at different hospitals, and have been able to save up our money. However, we decided during our trip in May to Vancouver, Canada, that instead of fretting about finding the next positions when our contracts end at August 2, we would just take a trip for the rest of the year. Once we'd come to that decision, there was no point in backing out.
However, the idea for the trip has been festering in our minds since a conversation we had on a little ferry boat heading out to an outlying island of Hong Kong last December. We thought about how exciting it would be to take a trip that would include every continent, all seven of them. At the time, not yet fully understanding the impact that the economy would have on the travel nurse field, we figured we would finish three assignments, maybe with a little time in between, and finish up in November to take off in December. Circumstances as they are, we are taking the trip a little earlier, although we're not complaining.
As I wrote about in the entry below, we had to scrap the TSR segment of the trip, at least this time around the world. On the other hand, the other day as we sat in our favorite restaurant/bar in Tucson, the Amber Restaurant, which is a Polish restaurant, chatting with the owner, we started talking about traveling. He was telling us about traveling home, to Warsaw and Krakow. Suddenly it occurred to us that perhaps we should travel to Poland as well. I went home and ran the numbers, and as it turns out, flying from Barcelona to Poland, then taking the train to Berlin a week later to catch a flight to Bangkok is only slightly more expensive than the flight directly from Barcelona to Bangkok, our initial plan. So, it looks like we will be getting in Poland and Germany this trip as well. How about that!
That is how I want this trip to go down--dynamic, flexible, and completely fun. I want to be able to go where we want to go. If I want to visit a friend in the backwoods of Chile part of the way down to Patagonia, way out of the way, then we should, not only because he is a hiking/kayaking guide there, but more importantly, because we can.
That's why we're doing this trip at all. Because we can.
Until next time, be safe.
