Erin: Day 19: Leaving Paris for Home…

Sooooo tired. :)  But, it’s that good tired.  The tired you get after spending three weeks filled with eight hour walking days and sightseeing and oh yes, managing a business during all of it.  It’s the sort of tired you get when you look back over the last three weeks and know that it was a life-changing and magical moment.  It’s the tired you feel when everyone is looking at you and you know they are thinking, “Poor thing, she looks exhausted” yet inside, you are filled completely with pure joy.  That’s how tired I am.

I’ve been awake since Tuesday morning around 6:00 AM and I really only got four hours of sleep that night too.  Trina and I have been on a bit of a crazy schedule but it’s been more fun than I can even summarize.  I know I’ve peppered throughout my blog entries some reflections posts and some thoughts I’ve been having about the entire trip but it started to sink in today, sitting alone in the airport (Trina and I are on separate flights so we had to split up at security) that my three week European adventure is over and I’m feeling a bit sad, a bit like there was more I could have done (haha – this is a common feeling of mine in every area of my life!) and also elated that I get to go home and return to “normal”.

So, if you’ve been following along as a fellow entrepreneur, here is my experience from a mobile lifestyle perspective.  It’s a whole lot easier than I had anticipated.  I had a few business colleagues who put a bit of fear in me before I left (I knew I should have blocked them out!) saying that connecting and working in Europe is nightmarish but my mindset was that they are a super developed set of countries, why would they be behind us in anyway when it comes to technology?
Here are a few of my tips as it relates to work:

• Make sure to purchase a conversion kit for electricity.  I bought one that contained plug-in converters for nearly every country around the world.  It cost me about $40 Canadian but I’ll have it now for as long as it continues to work.  If you lose yours along the way, most hotels carry them at their concierge desk so you just need to ask.
• Connecting to the Internet is the same as in North America.  You just need a WiFi enabled laptop and you can easily connect.  The only thing that is a bit crazy here is their rates.  We paid really low rates (2 Euro for 24 Hours) and we paid insane rates (27 Euro for 24 Hours) but we paid it regardless.  We could have searched out cheaper cafes, etc. but we went convenience factor the entire time.
• Get Skype.  Don’t bring your cell phone unless you have an International plan.  Roaming fees over here can cost you a small fortune (and perhaps your first born child) so it’s better to just turn it off or leave it at home.  Instead, download Skype from www.skype.com.  Get your business colleagues to download it too and you can use it to text chat or voice chat.  You can even do video chat should you wish to do that as well.
• The time difference can work to your advantage every time!  This was my favourite part.  I could wake up early, spend the entire day sightseeing, get back around 5pm GMT and it would only be 11AM back home.  My clients aren’t used to seeing me until around 10 – 11AM anyway so by working on GMT, I was able to get in a full day of “me” time and then put in 4-5 hours of work in the evening.
• Switzerland has different outlets so beware of where you stay!  We experienced this at the Starbucks in Switzerland.  Their outlets were more of a triangle shape and our converters did not fit inside of the plug.  The hotel luckily had two plug-ins in the room (perfect!) which fit our converters but we nearly panicked and resorted to the “let’s get out of Bern” backup plan.
• If you can’t get Internet at your hotel, head to a Starbucks or an Internet cafe.  Europe is great for this.  They have WiFi areas where we in North America wouldn’t dream of putting WiFi areas.  For example, I saw one WiFi area in the center of a park.  How convenient and beautiful is that?  You could be working away in the middle of the park watching people come and go while you’re immersed in the middle of nature.  Very cool.

So, if you’ve been considering the mobile lifestyle – I say DO IT!  The only thing I would say is have a backup plan.  If you are country-hopping like I did, make sure to have a backup resource so that if you land somewhere and you just can’t connect no matter where you are in that city, head out to the next city.  Sure, you may lose a deposit on a hotel room but if you’re trying to run a business too, business comes first!

Otherwise, I have no nightmare stories to share and I want to say THANK YOU to all of my clients who were flexible and willing to allow me the space to do this while still seeing their work flow in nicely (in fact, I was probably more productive over here because I was more aware of making sure productivity was up to keep my clients stress-free).  In fact, the lessons I’ve learned over here will be making an appearance back at home and I’m sure my clients will be very happen because of this.

If you’ve been following along as a fellow lover of travel, a friend, a family member or just peeked in to be nosy (which is totally ok too), then here is my experience from that perspective.  It is something everyone should do at least once.  My journey with this was that I woke up one day (on a Monday) and said to Steve, “Would you care if I went to Europe for three weeks?” and he said nope.  I knew he wouldn’t care but wanted to be courteous and ask anyway!

Wednesday came around and the itch inside of me to book that flight was growing strong so I opened up an Internet browser, went to AirCanada.com, looked up a flight from Montreal, Quebec to Paris, France and when the price came up and it was within my budgeted amount, I clicked buy and then when the purchase confirmation came up, I screamed.  I had just clicked buy on a plane ticket to Paris with not a single plan in place.

The weirdest part was, I didn’t stress nor did I plan at all for this trip.  I bought two Europe books (which met their death along the way… the book was so heavy that once we conquered a city or country, I would tear those pages out and leave them behind with the city!) and didn’t even glance at them before I left.  Instead, I was going with the mindset of coming over here and then just “going with it.”  So, you don’t need a plan and you don’t need months and months to plan a trip.  JUST DO IT!

The next part is expenses.  Now, I have the ability to do something most people can’t.  Because I own a business, I can at anytime create a new product or service, announce that to my list (a list for those of you non-internet marketers is a database of people who at some point or another asked to keep in touch with me and receive information from me) and I can make some serious cash doing so.  So… when I come up with an idea like this Europe trip, I just put on my thinking cap or brainstorm with a colleague to come up with something of great value and that will make me some fast cash.  So, I manifested the money needed for this trip.

If you can’t do that, here’s what I do suggest and some of you will kill me for saying this and Suze Orman would die if she knew I was throwing out this financial advice…  I suggest putting it on a credit card or line of credit if needed.  The thing is, you are living RIGHT NOW and if you want to book a trip and then spend the next year paying it off, do that!  Don’t hold back because not everything is in perfect condition (ie: finances, timing, planning, etc.)  All of that noise will just hold you back from doing anything spontaneous and fun.

So, I’ve learned a lot on this trip but to be honest, it made me realize just how easy this is and that is not a good thing for my free spirit…  Well, it’s good for me but not good for someone like my mom who is dying for a grandbaby ;)  (Mom, I love you tons!)  What I would really love to do is sell all of my possessions back home, figure out what we’d do with our puppies and then travel the world for one year – together with my husband.  Or, until we grew tired of the travel.  I’d extend my stay in each city so that a feeling of “ah, this is what it’s like to live here” can set in and then when we were ready and felt like it, we’d move on to the next place.

My work can be done from anywhere in the world and Steve doesn’t need to work.  He does now because he enjoys his job and has a great one doing something he loves but that doesn’t need to be.  Instead, we could see the world together before settling down to start a family and purchasing a house and all of that other “adult” stuff.  We don’t need all of the “stuff” we have in our house either.  It’s all superficial.  Books, CDs, etc. can be donated or stored away if they are really special… Clothes can be stored away too and I could buy new worldly clothes as I went along…  Our furniture, well, that’s only furniture and we can sell what we don’t want to keep and then store the rest.  I mean, I think it would be so freeing to have no other possessions for a year or so other than what you can physically carry around on your back.

It’s not an ideal scenario for everyone, I totally get that.  It’s also not appealing to everyone and doesn’t follow the linear path that life says you should lead.  Grow up ? Get married ? Buy a house ? Have a baby ? Raise said baby ? Have more babies ? Work in your career until retirement ? See kids off to school ? Kids get married ? You get grandbabies ? You die.

Ok, I know some of you are sitting in shock at my cynicism but it’s the truth.  That is the natural progression and often what becomes expected of you as a member of society.  Unfortunately, I don’t think I fit into that mould nor do I want to.  I want to explore this world that is a giant gift given to us.  Every part of the world is so unique and we can learn a lot about ourselves and others and we can learn to become more tolerant of other people’s opinions and mindsets and we can learn to value and appreciate the people in our lives more.

So, I’d love to throw this idea out to the universe.  Modern day gypsy.  The caravan being whatever mode of transportation is available (train, plane, bus, rental car, etc.) and the land being the entire globe.  Wherever, whenever, however. Making life happen on our own terms.  That would be grand.

Ok, to wrap up this final European blog post as I am still sitting here in the Paris airport for another hour before boarding…  THANK YOU Europe for being accommodating.  The entire trip went off flawlessly and as I expected, I continue to be in love with this part of the world.  Thank you for opening up your doors and allowing me to see parts of history that I never thought I’d see and for offering up language, culture and new food into my life experience.  I am forever changed yet remain the same in my passion for travel and I look forward to the next time we meet.

Au revoir.
Ciao.
Vaarwel.
Auf Wiedersehen.
Arrivederci.

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