In this post, I talk about starting the planning and preparation process for The Cold Plunge, from booking flights to selling my belongings, and the excitement and overwhelm that ensues.
It was New Years Eve, and the end of year sales got me thinking about my trip to Ireland via Canada. I briefly looked up and mapped out flights from Brisbane to Vancouver or Seattle, and then Montreal to Shannon in the west of Ireland. The multi-stop ticket was coming in around $3,000, while a one-way flight to Dublin was around $1,500. Eventually, I decided I still wanted to go to Canada first. I wanted to visit Janine in British Columbia, and do book research in Newfoundland. I figured, why skip over all these places I wanted to go? I had the money to do this trip. I had thought about keeping it as a buffer before I found a job in Ireland, but I really wanted to do this travel in Canada.
I researched relocation cruises, something I had learned about when reading the book Home Sweet Anywhere by Lynne Martin. I checked out a popular retail travel agent who marketed themselves as ‘Round the World experts’. I decided to go into my local branch and get one of their agents to help me map out a journey. I figured they might be able to find a flight path or airfare deal I hadn’t been able to see. I wanted to see Hozier perform at Marlay Park in Dublin on July 5th, so I decided to buy a ticket to the concert as a starting point, and work my way back from there. This was another small step toward my trip planning.
On my way to work one day, I was stopped in traffic, and the car in front of me caught my eye. The branding on the back of the car showed details for a mobile travel agent. I took a photo- this was definitely a sign.
After work one day I dropped into the travel agency. I hardly had the energy after a busy day at my retail job, and a particularly nasty confrontation with a customer. The travel consultant was reluctant to help me from the outset, and only called me over because none of the other consultants were available. She was gruff and barely looked away from her computer as I told her my travel plans. She insisted I needed exact dates for departure, which I offered, but she still rejected. She did show me an online multi-flight trip planning tool- I had already discovered it in my own investigations, but I was glad to have its validity confirmed. The consultant told me to use the tool, save my flight plan, and send her the link, and then she could view my plan and tweak it if necessary.
I went home and did just that, and also emailed the mobile travel agent. She called me almost immediately. She presented me with some interesting potential options for my flight path to Ireland. She had me flying from Toronto to Berlin with Lufthasa and then onto Dublin. A stopover in Germany was appealing. She also gave me some advice about Round the World tickets and their validity after a year, and travel insurance for North America. She set about putting some quotes together for me.
With the flight planning underway, things were getting real. It really was my last few months living on the Gold Coast with Cat and my beloved neighbours. It wasn’t over yet, but it would be soon. I felt saddened at the thought, and scared about what awaited me beyond the certainty of this living situation with this group of people around me. I was also scared about what could happen between now and May when I was planning to depart. Would Mum find out her cancer had come back? Would my grandparents die? Would I be able to sell my car? But I was also excited. It all felt so strange. I didn’t feel ready, but I knew I was.
After going back and forth with quotes, I had Michelle put two flights on hold for me, from Brisbane to Vancouver, and Toronto to Dublin. I was worried that I hadn’t allowed myself enough time in Canada. After touching base with Janine to let her know of my travel plans, she had suggested coming and staying with her in the Okanagan Valley for a week or two. She suggested we would also stay at her family’s cabin by the lake, and she would show me Vancouver Island. It felt encouraging to know I had someone waiting for me in Canada. I knew we would have the best time together. I was motivated to get the flights booked. But this new timeline only left me two weeks to get from Vancouver to Toronto and do everything I wanted to do in between, which was possibly going to include a short trip into the United States. I considered extending my trip in Canada from four weeks to six. I wanted to leave myself enough time to transit between places and also have some rest days between activities. I didn’t want to feel rushed. My flights were on hold for two days, but I didn’t want to rush to book them before having my journey planned out. I felt I should have done this before looking at flights. But I wasn’t going to book anything in until I felt happy with my basic timeline. But I also knew I would never feel completely ‘ready’, and didn’t want to put off booking the flights much longer.
To help me decide on the best flights to book, I decided the time had come to make a detailed plan for my journey through Canada.
Kate Kelsen 