It’s 2.53 am and I can’t sleep.

Tomorrow is my last day in Munich before I leave on my round-the-world trip. This trip is what has kept me sane over the last three years while I was struggling through my PhD. Reading about other peoples’ dreams and how they managed to make them come true was what kept me going.

I’ve been looking forward to this ever since I made up my mind to go travelling, while I was still on my first ever solo trip in Israel in 2010. I remember tossing that 10 shekel coin at the beach in Tel Aviv on my last day there. I can’t even recall what the outcome was (heads or palm tree) but it didn’t really matter anyway.

I’d already decided that travel would play a bigger part in my future life, even though it took a bit longer than I was expecting that summer, three full years.

And here I am, lying in bed, unable to sleep mere 42 hours before I leave for London, from where I’ll catch my flight to Lima, Peru. A lot of things have happened since I flipped that shekel. I even got to travel quite a bit since; short trips to Dublin, Berlin and Amsterdam, a week in Barcelona, a fantastic weekend in Disneyland Paris, a wedding in Scotland and even three full months that I got to live in South Africa. I also got my driving license, lived in student halls as a warden, found myself an awesome boyfriend (and travel companion) and even became a doctor at the end of it (chemistry, not medicine, but it still counts!).

I can’t even count the hours and days I spent researching this upcoming trip. I read heaps of travel blogs (I even learnt to use the word heaps in one of my favourite ones), studied hundreds of packing lists, pored over countless route maps and dragged my boyfriend to more travel expos than I care to remember.

But where am I going with all this I hear you ask? To be honest, I am not quite sure myself. I just wanted to capture what I am feeling right now, so close to take-off after years of preparation and anticipation. The best word to describe it is probably: paralyzed. Or even numb. Like you’re strapped into the roller coaster seat mere seconds before it shoots off and you can’t do anything about it anymore! In the end it’ll probably be great fun (or in my case, the worst 7 Euro you’ve ever spent).

But I’m getting side tracked here.

It might just be the calm before the storm (or before the s*** hits the fan).

It probably is.

Or, maybe I am SO well-prepared that there is literally nothing to worry about.

Yeah, right. Actually, I think I’ve figured it out: I feel ready.

Well, as ready as I can feel. I have no idea where I’ll be a week from now or what the hell I’ll be doing or eating (hopefully not guinea pig. I bet it’s guinea pig). But I do know that this was the right decision for me at this point in my life. Let’s keep our fingers crossed I’ll still think so a year from now.

Now, the only thing left to do, apart from saying goodbye to my loved ones (and eating soup dumplings one more time), is be excited. The planning part was awesome but now let the real fun begin. For now, let’s get some sleep.

More fun stuff:

RTW Tickets are booked!! When to book your RTW flights My one year round the world trip in numbers