Plan, again and again

Helsinki

I won't make anybody cry. That wasn't my intention. But traveling for six months, through discoveries and encounters, is a lot of planification as I go. A lot of decisions must be taken quickly, too quickly sometimes, and I must assume them no matter what. It gets tiring a little bit.

Visiting Baltic countries, wandering day after day from a city to another, means being alert for trains and bus schedules and to book hostels 24 hours in advance.

The problem is even bigger when week-ends come, in a season where everybody is traveling. In Helsinki, where everything is expensive, there is already not a lot of places to sleep. Except if you want to pay 50 euros for a more or less mediocre room.

So I decided to book flights for the next (and last) month, and to plan in a tighter way. Might be an error. Having bought already a very expensive flight from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, I need to get a visa for Brazil. Problem is I don't have the 10 working days most brazilian consulates demand. I thought it would be easier than asking for the chinese visa. There, at least, I needed no more than five days.

So I cross my fingers for an express visa service to fall from the sky. I checked for Helsinki. No express visa here...

If it doesn't work, I'll need to cancel my flight, which is not reassuring when you think I'm not sure I would be able to get any money back. The plan would then be to go to Argentina first and wish for very efficient border patrols in Foz de Iguazu, where I might get a visa in one day if I'm lucky. That is what the rumor says. I'm starting to consider the option of giving up on Brazil, but I hope I won't have to do that.

In the mean time, I got in Helsinki, Finland, in the morning ferry. I took that occasion to reunite with Tua, a Finnish girl I met in a dorm in China. Each time I see someone I met previously, we make the world smaller. It is crazy to think our first meeting was two months ago already. And the first thing she said when she saw me : "You lost weight!"

Must mean I'm getting thiner by the minute. Two months and she sees a difference.


Another sign of the time flying, I have torn my only pair of shorts. I bought a new one while falling for a new t-shirt. Bored of wearing the same two t-shirts all the time. In the same order of business, my almost non existing soles start showing how much I traveled, like that hole appearing on top of one of the shoes. My bag is, on his side, holding on with duct tape.

I'm trying not to buy anything new as I'm getting closer to my destination. We'll see if everything holds.