Up Up And AWAY

For the past few days I have been going against my natural tendencies. The ugly head of stress had popped its head into my life. It felt like how imagine a cat feels when you pet its hair in the wrong direction, confused and wanting to bite something. When I came to Italy I had questions about visas and what I had to do to stay here for a year. Official websites and internet threads told me I couldn’t. Seasoned travelers disagreed and had a clever approach to sidestepping the visa. I have 90 days to be in the EU per entry, so the loophole is to leave the EU and come right back in. This seemed simple enough but this is where the “stress” snuck its way in. Things to think about; anything north is going to be cold, anything south is north Africa and war torn, west is Mexico, money, distance, which country would be fun to visit for a couple days. My initial thoughts were to go to Switzerland because I loved it so much the last time I visited. Problems; too cold, too expensive, peak season for tourists, might not stamp the passport which is what I need most. The other options were Turkey and Croatia, but both were upwards of 500 Euros round trip. That would be the most expensive bit of ink I would have ever known.

With time dwindling down until my much needed departure, my head was drunk with confusion and angst. I don’t know how to plan. Other people do that. The invisible hand was petting my fur wrong. My usual method to deal with these situations is to wait. Waiting has been my best tool in figuring out problems and this was no different. Today Michael picked me up in the morning and with a bright German smile he said “I solved your problem”. I love problem solvers. What did Michael have for me? The solution to my problems in the form of a plane ticket. He didn’t personally buy my ticket, but he did discover a 1 day deal going on with RyanAir. The advertisement was six Euros for a flight to certain destinations. He did some finger magic on the keyboard and he might as well have pulled a rabbit out of a hat with the trick he showed me. Ten Euros later I had round trip tickets from Sardinia to Oslo, Norway. Never did I think I would go to Norway in the…Wait it is gonna be freezing… I filled the air with my concern but Michael dismissed it saying I could borrow some of his winter clothes. WIN…

Moral of the story, why act when you can wait…