Wanderlust

The time since I got back from my trip to Australia has passed in a blur of gray skies and unseasonally cold weather, with little to report.  The adjustment back was much harder than I anticipated it would be, and I'm still working on figuring out what my "normal life" is these days.  The good news is that I've managed to make some progress, however minor, in getting people to pay me actual money for some photography and writing gigs.  Hopefully this is merely the start of more good things to come.

The never-ending winter makes sunny Australia seem like a lifetime ago.  My tan had faded away along with my good mood as a result of being cooped up in my apartment.  Thankfully, though, I got to take a much-needed adult mini spring break to Florida with some great friends this past weekend, which did wonders for both my spirit and my tan.

We spent the first day at Epcot Center, my first trip to Disney since I was (I think) six years old.

I admit that going in I was skeptical about how much fun Disney would be as an adult, but I confess that it was a pretty great day (other than losing my first - but I'm sure not last - pair of sunglasses for the year).  I was also surprised how much of it seemed familiar after all these years.

The rest of the trip was spent just relaxing on the beach in Pass-a-Grille.  The Gulf of Mexico was beautiful and gloriously free of both oil spills and college spring breakers.  I even built a sand castle, another first in many, many years.

Even though I just got back yesterday, today is the first sunny and warm(ish) day that I've seen in NYC this year and the weather has me itching to go somewhere, anywhere.  Wanderlust has been coming on strong in the past week or so, and today is only making it worse.

So now I am on to planning the next trip in my year of fun.  I've booked a ticket to the motherland and will be spending two weeks exploring Poland next month.  I'll also be meeting up in Prague for a few days with a friend who currently lives in Germany, and then closing out this Eurotrip with a few days in Budapest.  These are all new places for me, so I'm very excited.  I'm also very excited because everything that I've investigated so far seems to point to the same conclusion - Poland is very inexpensive, especially in contrast with my last trip.

And now back to the trip planning...