Eat, Pray, Love, and Go

The irony is, I don't like the book 'Eat, Pray, Love'. The movie was a massive success, but as a former English student I have the bad habit of reading a book before watching a movie and then deciding whether I watch the movie based on my opinion of the book. I found 'Eat, Pray, Love' the book to be devoid of any substantial plot, too slow to keep interest, and thought it was more a one woman 'look at meeeee' party. Therefore I avoided the movie like the plague. Until, that is, I recorded it on the sky box, and decided  to give it a chance over a coffee breakfast the other morning. I have watched it three times this week.

You see, there comes a point when you arrive home after travelling that you feel like you are content to sit in your own country for a while and live a normal life and hold down a normal job. Some people become content with doing that and find they do it for the rest of their lives with 2 . 5 kids and a dog named Tom. 2.5 kids and a dog named Tom don't fit well into Ryanair cabin baggage allowance, so travelling becomes a yearly or so trip to a beach with a built in Irish bar. That's fine for the person that wants that, but it dawned on me as I watched Julia eat her spaghetti that I was 22 and didn't have 2 . 5 kids and a dog named Tom, and I wanted to eat spaghetti and see Rome. Suddenly, without much warning, the travelling bug was back full force! I tried to calm it down by saying 'no, you are saving money! You are living a normal life! You are not heading off again! You need to stay where you are!'

I consulted a usually understanding friend; former Thai teacher now KFC chip shaker James, who also expressed the feeling of an ever growing travel bug. Suddenly, it was 1am and we had the prices of flights, accommodation, trains, and could already taste the pizza. As James said at one point, 'Why not?'

So, its done. I am taking my week's holiday from work, and on the 16th of October I am getting a Ryanair flight to Venice (dirt cheap so it was. It was half the price of the return train from Kildare to Killarney. Dangerous prices!). I stay in Venice for two or three nights, then take a train to Florence and stay there for a night, then off to beautiful Roma, where I finally get to stand in front of that Colosseum. After three or four nights of my dream destination, I fly home.

After booking the flights yesterday morning and jumping around my kitchen like a Duracell bunny, much to the dismay of my dog, I realised that when Rome is gone off my bucket list, I have only one dream city left; New York. I thought 'only one dream city left. Aim of the day, find a new dream city!'. 'Cause that's the whole point right? Complete monotonous normality doesn't suit humans. Human life always needs a dream to work towards, no matter what that dream is. Thing is, you have to take the chance of living the dream when it comes around, otherwise, whats the point in dreaming?

To Italy we go!

Slán.