Interregnum STOPS 9 and 10 | Nothing lost + "You were the gel that kept us together"

Dedicated to the Solo Travelers, who are looking for the beauty of the sublime, in every corner of Earth and in every aspect of their souls. And to the Lost Souls who hectically try to recompose themselves to find a place in this world and a meaning to this existence. And eventually to Gianlu, who apparently knows how to enjoy life and is my role-model.

 

I am on the plan heading to my next destination: it’s not going to be smooth as I have a long way in front of me. From Iceland to Newark, Newark to Houston, Houston to Belize City. The more I travel, the more tired I am: every flight is just an hectic and continuous check of documents, covid-19 procedures, entry requirements and so on.

What I’ve realized is that traveling in two people may be much cheaper and convenient, so probably instead of looking for a wife, which can be more cumbersome, I can just start searching for a travel companion, who can even be a guy.

 

But the interregna are the most beautiful moments, as I have time to reflect.

 

I met beautiful people, this is probably why I love Intrepid: when I cannot travel with friends I know I can rely on a company who tries to put together like-minded people. Following Marcello’s advice, I wanted to be low profile, but I believe I came across as chatty (not in a bad way) and engaging, as I was the one asking for group pics all the times and asking (too many) questions to our guide.

 

 

And yes, probably the group wanted to throw me in the lava, but eventually it didn’t happen.

 

Another realization is that with such people probably you will never talk again in your life, but how beautiful is to spend 1 or 2 weeks together, talking freely about your beliefs, perspectives, opinions, with no fear of being judged/observed/evaluated.

 

Unfortunately my job was immediately revealed as I had some sweat pants with a big logo on it: believe it or not I didn’t wear them to show off, but only because they were the most comfortable, I didn’t realize, as my coworker and friend Biren said, “it’s going to be uncomfortable not to show the logo”. So the generic “I work in Tech in the Bay Area” intro didn’t quite fly, after everyone saw the logo. But being this sabbatical about connections, I believe I connected with the whole group not because of my job, but because of my personality, which was the only thing I cared about.

 

I will never forget the facial expressions of Teran, an American advisor at University of Maryland, working in Germany, while commenting our guides, especially the Volcano guide. Or Amy’s question mark face looking at my reactions, when soups were cold or the bread was frozen. Or Chris' faces while taking pics.

 

Despite my 8day long search, I found a bracelet with “Iceland” written right the last day: it’s so funny as I searched in any single souvenir shops I encountered over the Ring Road, unsuccessfully. Still need to find a way to compensate for Philly and Portugal, but it’ll happen later.

 

 

I have the fear of losing even one of them. I was pretty sure I lost the Juventus-like one – again, after Philly – on my second night in Iceland, but I found on the last day in my backpack.

 

Can you imagine my bags?! It’s a mess all around. What I really look forward is stability and constancy: so I really need to make peace with commitment and decide what I wanted to do. Everything else will follow through. And yes, Happiness shouldn’t be searched for, it’s a state of mind, as reminded to me during the bus ride to the volcano.

 

I spent about 7 hours in the United Lounge in Newark. Every time I enter a Lounge, it reminds me my friend Gianlu, as he loves enjoying life, so I keep making an IG story about living a good life: I am not sure he likes it, but I swear it's innocent.

About half of my stay in the Lounge was with Ashley, as she had about 3h layover before her next flight. We just did admin stuff (booking hotels, calling family and friends or eating/drinking) and the lounge was pretty full, but the best thing she could have ever told me when leaving was this: "You were the gel that kept us together"! So probably, this sabbatical may have been worth it, somehow?

I reached quite smoothly my hotel in Houston and now, in another United Lounge, I am waiting for my next connection to Belize. And yes, I got free business class upgrade for both my US flight legs, so I seated more comfortable. #takelifeasitcomes