Have protein bars, will travel...

Woot, I got a Thinking Blogger award! Thanks Kek! Now I’m supposed to do something with it, nominate my own favourite blogeinsteins. I’m making a list, I’m checking it twice, I’m gonna find out who’s naughty or nice… watch this space.

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I really love to travel, and like most travellers, I have evolved my particular way of going about the important business of discovering the world. When travelling da sola I have all my priorities in order – my backpack contains:
Protein bars
Protein powder (unless I’m in Australia, in which case it was likely confiscated by AQIS when I entered)
And from the local shops:
Dark bread – the sort that can also double as a self-defence weapon if necessary
Canned fish
Hard fruit – and soft fruit?…well, it’s obvious why that won’t work in a backpack
Nuts
THAT is organised. As for other details like where to go and where to sleep.. well, that just unfolds following the whim of the gods of adventure and the demi-gods of my travel budget. ‘Europe ‘07’ is different. This time I will be travelling with my man, my sister, her Liectensteinian ‘friend’ (ahem) and one very wilful toddler. What this means is that accommodation is fully organised, we know exactly where we will be and in which timezone to plan toddler naps and nobody except me has given a second thought to what the adults might eat. My travel buddies are a diverse mix. One has a large, greasy cooked breakfast every morning, one consumes coffee and cigarettes all day and often doesn’t eat until dinner and they are all skinny, ‘carbs are my fuel' types. It’s going to be interesting. I’m not overly worried, I know how it goes, you eat bread, nutella and strong coffee in the morning, walk all day, do your best for lunch and dinner with the local cuisine, siesta in the heat of the afternoon, drink too much wine and come home 2kg lighter. It’s the beautiful alchemy of lots of exercise, consistent eating and little stress.

I’ll be writing more about my travel plans in the coming weeks as the excitement (and the ‘Crap, so much to do!’ panic) begins to settle in. The main reason for the group trip is to accommodate the one small person amongst us. Since the moment I knew that we would be travelling with my 2 year old niece, her safety has been in the forefront of my mind. I’ve got a major dose of APS (Aunty Paranoia Syndrome). That girl is going to have two bodyguards 24/7 - four adults to one child - perfect! She will also have to get used to wearing a baby leash in crowded cities. Some may think that this is getting overly kuckoo, but having travelled and seen the ‘missing child’ photos plastered everywhere, I think a little paranoia is well justified. You can imagine that it did little for my peace of mind when little Madeleine McCann got abducted in Portugal. I don’t usually get caught up in current events but I’ve found myself regularly checking her parents blog just hoping that she has been found. I find it so distressing to think that there are people so evil as to take a child from a loving home. It makes me want to… do something….