My Next 40 Years

I recently signed up to go on a mystery vacation with a company called “Journee”.  To start, you fill out a 5-10 minute survey that asks you questions about the types of things you enjoy and what you’re interested in experiencing during your vacation.  You can either select certain dates, or, if you’re flexible, have Journee pick for you.  I was flexible in that I was able to go anytime during the last two weeks of May.  After reading a million reviews, doing infinite research and confirming that this company was indeed legit, I decided to go for it.  Once I filled out my questionnaire, I received the following proposal in about 24 hours.

NOTE: I chose to exclude England because I’ve bee several times and wanted a completely new experience.  

In addition to the description of the location above, I received the following curated activities: 

At this point I was fairly certain my mystery location was: 

1. Austria, possibly Linz

2. Croatia

My family threw out the following suggestions: 

1. France, one vote for Annecy and one for a general rural location

2. Belgium, possibly Bruges

Since booking my trip, I have received two clues (2/8) which has opened up more locations and eliminated a few others:

After receiving these cluses, I’m now thinking even further south: 

1. Portugal – possibly Lisbon or Porto

2. Malta – small island – all of Malta

3.  Spain – possibly Andalusia 

4. Maaaaaybe the Canary Islands or the Maldives

I’ve received a lot of encouragement surrounding this trip and a few, “why would you want to do that” comments.  Well the long of the short of it is that life is too short to not just go for it.  

This last year has been particularly rough and after a good deal of personal deliberation, and a small push, I decided to leave my job of 10 years.  I wanted to take some time to travel, take care of some projects around my house and spend time with my family.  This was a huge, scary decision – especially given the state of affairs in America right now, but I am confident that it was the correct one.  

Since leaving my job a few weeks ago, I’ve been able to become a Certified Scrum Master – something I have been wanting to do for ages but couldn’t find the time; I’ve booked this amazing trip and I have plans to travel up the East Coast when I return from where-ever I’m going. 

 I invite you to follow along, not only on this “Journee”, but my journey in general!

Where do you think I’m going?