The Next Adventure

Before I left on my US trip, I knew I also wanted to do more travel in the summer/fall – to really take advantage of this wonderful opportunity of time that I have.

So, this adventure – where will I go? Since I left work, I have wanted to go and volunteer in Africa. When I was in Bali, and with my interest in yoga, I became more curious to visit India. And I knew that I had to go back to Europe – even having lived there for 8 years in the 1990's, there was still more I want to see. I also realized that while I originally went there to backpack, I ended up working – so maybe now, after 20 years of pretty much all work, it was time to backpack!

I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out what of all these options, I really wanted to do. Then one day, speaking to a friend, I realized I could do it all – I have the time, so why not - just go! Europe in the summer and Africa and India in the fall using London as a home base.

The plan then started to take concrete shape when I had the invitation to join friends on a weeks vacation on Santorini in Greece in July. I decided to go when I realized that from there I could explore more of the Greek Islands (as I was there …) and then go from there to Italy – which I had never been to and always wanted to visit – Rome, Florence and Sienna where my 3 destinations.

In terms of India – I had purposely gone to a workshop in Denver by an Indian Iyengar yoga teacher, Swati Chanchani as she and her husband run intensive yoga programs in India. I applied and am going to two of their intensives (since I am there) from the end of September to mid November. I realized just how excited I was with my reaction to the confirmation – yippee!!

With regards to Africa – I do still want to go, but have struggled with how and with what organization. Ideally, I would like to just go to Capetown and see where it takes me, but I am not comfortalbe doing that on my own. And from what I've read over the last year, I've become more disillusioned about the bigger aid organizations – including the UN from my visit there in NY. I decided to try and go with Habitat for Hummanity but this hasn't quite come together yet so I am still exploring – hoping to get something nailed down soon given that September is just around the corner.

So – at the minute, after a fabulous week on Santorini, I am in a little hotel on Mykonos in Greece getting this blog thing together and enjoying the easy lifestyle of the Greek Islands – beach or to blog, it's a tough choice! The lovely thing is, for which I'm very grateful, that this is truly my time – to explore, to just hang out and relax – above all, a chance to be present with myself in some pretty amazing places.