NOCHAPA

This is my first blog entry, so I wanted to share how I came to build this site and why I am sharing it with anyone interested. This will be long story without photos and about 1300 words. So if you don’t have time, please come back. After this blog, when you return, the future blogs will be shorter and have colorful photos. Enjoy. 

Planning For The Perfect Trip. 

The simple answer is it’s nearly impossible. When given the opportunity to pick any trip for my 50th birthday, it was easy to select the general area I wanted to visit. For most of my life, 80-90% of my trips were planned around family. Mostly because I was a cheap ass, and if I had a place to stay, I could afford to splurge on the extra length of my vacation. I love my family and thank them for allowing me to stay with them all those years. But I only traveled outside the US twice. Most recently to Coast Rica (go to the gallery to see a few of the snapshots), and before that, I went to Saint Martin for my 30th in 2004. I lost the files from that trip in a tragic hard drive crash. The only reminder I have is a blurry photo of me sitting on the steps of some building during an outside concert my cousin took and my fading memories. But who knows how long my memories will last?

So when I knew I would have a family member in Paris during my 50th birthday, I set my goal. I want to get to Europe, get a Europass to ride the train anywhere, and see as much of Europe as possible. I was so naive when I started planning. Then I started researching to see if any festivals were happening then. And I came across Octoberfest in Munich. My birthday is August 29th, and Octoberfest begins September 21st, 2024. That is a lot of days to take off for one vacation. I spent months determining if I could make it happen since I changed jobs and could not accrue as much time off as I had banked with my last job, ten weeks vs six weeks. I figured it out, so I had to figure out a budget for what I could do. 

I saved significantly over the last couple of years to make the most of this once-in-a-lifetime trip. And I started to look for flights, and while trying to find the right business class ticket (everyone who knows me knows I am a large guy) and, I feared sitting in a regular seat for 8 hours. It was one of my go-no-go items. If I could not figure out how to afford a business ticket, I am not sure I would go. Luckily I lost a lot of weight over the last year, and I was able to afford the ticket. 

I found a flight that was 25% less than a lot of the major carriers. There was a fight out of Detriot on Turkish Airlines. But it went all the way to Istanbul and then back to Paris. Not considering Istanbul as one of my stops, I looked at if I could plan a layover and see some of the city. The more I researched, the more I wanted to spend days there. So, it became a primary stop. I planned on getting a Europass to take the train back to Paris. I planned for months, trying to plan every stop and city; after months of planning, I still had no decisions. It was stressing me out because I was getting closer and closer, and if I didn’t buy my tickets soon, I already saw the ticket prices climb.  

I had started to become attached to all the cities I wanted to stop in, but if I chose to take the train, I would only be able to stay one night in each and wouldn’t have a lot of time to sightsee. Sightseeing and experiencing the cities was the whole point so I chose to piviot and skip the train. I decided i would pick four cities to explore and and I would see would I could along the way, but I would not worry about planning anything. 

By this time, three cities had already been chosen: Paris, Munich, and Istanbul. I wanted to go to Barcelona, Prague, Amsterdam, London, Rome, and Budapest. Rome (Roma) won me over. I love history and art, and having the chance to go to Istanbul (Ottoman Empire) and Rome (Roman Empire) in one trip was a dream come true.  

What I learned from this exercise is that you cannot be so anal and schedule every second of a vacation because then it ceases to be a vacation, and it’s all work to stay on schedule. Find the main stopping points and take excursions from there because you can save money if you stay longer in one location. When I am in Rome, I will take day trips to Florence and Naples, which will keep me from having to move all my luggage to a new city, and I can get a weekly rate at the Airbnb.

I am so delighted and proud of the itinerary I put together because it allows me to enjoy the art, culture, and food at each stop and gives me many opportunities to experience whatever the cosmos sends my way. I don’t want to put too much pressure on this trip, but it’s the kind that can change a person. Will I be a changed person when I come back? I’m excited to find out.  

Because this is such an epic trip for me, I wanted to share it with my family and friends, but I have given up on traditional social media because not everyone needs to know what I am doing and there is so much negativity and I want this to be a positive thing. I created this site with the intent of only inviting my close friends and family because who else would really care? 

After talking with some friends at work, they thought it might become a hobby or side hustle if I made it public. I am not the first or last person with a travel blog. Travel blogs are all over the place, I used many of them to plan my trip. But I do have a perspective that many do not. I do not have endless funds, so when I do something, I want it to have value. I am also a large man, and most things in this world are not made for people like me. Europe, especially old Europe, was designed for people of much smaller stature in height and weight. As I traverse through Europe and all my stops, I will be able to give the perspective of a 6ft 1in, 350lb (185cm/159kg) human. 

I am a tech geek and tech early adopter when I can. I have already started buying things for my trip with the expectation that I will write reviews of different gadgets and report back on how they performed or if they were even needed. It would not be the first time I bought something I only used once. I think that runs in the family. 

If this sounds like something you might be interested in following, please sign up. I also created a YouTube page to host video blogs, but those will probably be active once I start reviewing the gadgets later this summer. The blog will pick up closer to my birthday, but keep an eye out for some random reviews of my travel items.