The Trip

History

We have both dreamt of traveling the world for a long long time. Already during school Ben’s school days he dreamt of traveling the world with a good friend. Kristina did more than just dream and had already planed a six-months trip with a friend before we met (www.unsere-weltreise.net). After her return we both knew we would some day travel the world together.

Six years, graduation from the University, some seven years of collective paid work as physicians and a marriage later, dreams had turned into plans and the plans into reality.

Preparation

Not much of anything works well without preparation, and such a project has no chance without a lot of it. Starting with gathering basic information about where to travel, when to travel (this was one of Kristina’s points of focus where Ben was absolutely no help), how to travel the planing phase even included a surgical procedure: Ben had a LASIK done to not have to worry about contact lenses during the trip. In between, gear had to be bought, flights booked, and countless issues with authorities and agencies resolved, insurance issues managed and the storage of our furniture organized. Buying gear has always been fun and booking flights is connected with an exciting tingling in the stomach, but everything else is just about the least fun way to spend countless afternoons and weekends. And feeling like a living pin-cushion while receiving countless vaccination shots isn’t exactly a party either.

LASIK

Yes, the trip was what triggered surgery, but it was not the sole reason. Glasses have been banned for about fifteen years now, except for Sundays on the couch and night-shifts in the hospital, and thus the thought of reverting back to fashionable eyewear was just not an option, 15 years of dancing in the rain without water droplets in front of your eyes is just too much quality of life to ever give up again. (At least not for another 20 years.) Expensive, yes. Painful, for about 12 hours after the local anesthesia wore off, hell yes. But the experience of waking up, opening your eyes and seeing sharp, immediately, was worth every cent and every pit of pain. I can’t wait to wake up in the middle of night while camping somewhere in Patagonia, step outside and see the stary night sky as pure as anyone.