Nerves For My Trip

Nerves For My Trip

In February 2013, I board the plane for a three-week solo tour of Cuba. I am more nervous than usual. Since the fatal journey in 2010 with the Trans Siberia Express (by train from Moscow to Beijing) I have not made long journey alone since than.

The Flight

I watch a movie and talk to my neighbor on the plane. The conversation makes me even more nervous, because she is going to stay in a resort and does not dare to travel alone in Cuba. Just what I'm going to do! I used to have no problem with it, but the one trip that went wrong still plays through my mind. I sleep a bit and think I have already booked all guesthouses and buses so the route is fixed so it can't be that difficult.

Cuba

I land in the middle of the night, my transfer to Havana is ready. After an hour's drive I arrive at a super nice hotel in one of the old historical buildings. I check in and get ready to go to sleep. I shift the time to local time and fall asleep.

Havana

The next day I wake up early and have an extensive breakfast. I get into a conversation with a Dutch couple who have just traveled through Cuba for three weeks by car. I get some tips and check my clock. It's time to meet my local agent to receive my hotel and transfer vouchers.

Something Goes Wrong

I take a seat downstairs in the salon. A little later, a woman approaches me, the agent. She says that I'm late. I made a mistake in the clock setting and now she has to go to another appointment first. Oh well something is already going wrong! Breathe in and out!

It Will Be Fine

I can go with her to the other two hotels she has to go to and while she is talking to them, I can explore the area and afterwards she will give me my vouchers and explain some little things to me. Great deal, I come along and explore a part of Havana where I probably wouldn't have been otherwise. At the end of the afternoon I am dropped off at my hotel with my vouchers and some tips by the agent. The next day I explore Havana a bit more. And then the adventure really starts, because then I will take the bus through Cuba to the other end of the island.

The Rest Of The Trip

The transfers are going well, and the guesthouses are cool, and I get in touch with locals everywhere. My confidence is growing again. When on the bus from Santiago to Baracoa a tire blows on the way, I have to get off. I get into a conversation with 2 Italian sisters who have just started their journey. I meet with them to have a cocktail after dinner. It results in 3 dinners and a friendship with one of the sisters.

Baracoa

I am not only talking about Cuba, but also about life. I review with them that I have few vacation days to see everything I want to see in the world. This is the place that is starting a change for me and one of the sisters, because at the end of 2013 I and one of the sisters both quit our jobs and went on a journey.  I have a correspondence blog for 6 months with her, parts of which can still be read on my website, she was blogging from South America and I was blogging from Oceania. I did not know all this at the time in Baracoa during the dinners and cocktails.

New Adventure With Confidence

Back on the plane, I was able to look back with satisfaction on a beautiful journey. My fatal travel trip in 2010 where I ended up in a local mental hospital in Mongolia and I was told I had had a psychosis NAO* no longer arouses fear of traveling. There is even talk of my travel addiction again. On November 18, 2013, I left for Australia as a digital nomad, with new adventures in mind.

*There are more diseases with the same symptoms and in my case the symptoms disappear with rest. Because I was not left alone or taken to the emergency room, there was already a bias in working. My advice is to go to all doctor's appointments alone and always connect with mental health professionals through your general practitioner or hospital emergency department.

*I wrote this blog for the Instagram course Writing Travel Stories as an assignment, ‘describe a fiercely or special moment in travel' . It is a course I paid for, I got lots of tips from the teacher.