The Departure
There were so many false starts. Every time we thought the pandemic might be coming to an end, England was hit by a fresh wave. Thinking back on it, it’s incredible. Christmas was cancelled, we spent two and a bit years working from home, the government told us when we could leave our houses and for what reasons. We were lucky where we were, near a high street and all its amenities, a lovely local community and a great park (Tooting Bec Common). But the blasted pandemic and the global lockdown meant that travel was out of the question. So we sat, worked and waited.
Finally, 2022 came around. Countries started to open up, and it looked like maybe, just maybe, international travel might become possible again. We decided to take the plunge and handed our 3 months notices into our jobs. We had a million plans, pins, countries, the only issue now was that this was still all in our heads. We had nothing booked beyond our imminent joblessness and needed a starting point.
We settled on starting in Sri Lanka (thanks in large part to The Budgeteers). Ellie went straight into laser focus flight comparison mode, where she found that it was actually quite expensive to fly directly to Sri Lanka. Looking at possible connections, stopovers or other budget alternatives, Ellie discovered that going via Istanbul massively changed the price. On a whim we looked into accommodation as Istanbul is a city we had always wanted to visit. We quickly found that we could get extremely reasonable accommodation, and even a nice compact AirBnB for very little. So we decided to go to Sri Lanka via a week's stopover in Istanbul. This also had the bonus of starting our adventure in a city where we could literally walk from Europe to Asia!
The final weeks before departure were a hectic blur. Saying goodbye to family and friends, finishing our jobs and packing up our flat, left us in a constant state of panic and nerves (which was very disconcerting for me as John is usually as cool as a cucumber). Our realisation of how just clueless we were was further reinforced when we came to pack. We had bought lovely brand new 40 litre backpacks and it had somehow not occurred to us that they would pack less than our old 70 litre bags! Many hurried repacks, discarded clothes and questions to our own sanity followed.
The sense of panic and anxiety was further deepened by the unfolding tragic situation in Sri Lanka, where an economic collapse has led to its worst economic crisis since independence. Travel advice for the country changed (and is changing) on a weekly basis, but our flights were already booked so we decided to just keep an eye on things as we really, really want to see Sri Lanka if at all possible.
John had also made things slightly harder for himself in the final week, as he had decided (obviously without my knowledge) to propose to me before we left the UK. This led to a slightly surreal last evening, where I wondered why John was so preoccupied with why our pizza delivery was so late and what time the sun set, but in the end it worked out beautifully. Our final Streatham sunset (indeed our final UK sunset) happened on a rooftop with John on one knee, the sun setting over London, Prosecco on hand and a ring presented. I obviously said yes (this would have been a very awkward start to the adventure otherwise)!
So in the space of 48 hours we had packed (several times), locked up all our belongings, left our flat, got engaged and departed from the UK. We’re writing this now from our tiny AirBnB in Beyoglu Istanbul surrounded by small cats. The stress of the last few weeks melting away with the realisation that the hardest thing to do is just jump. Once you’ve taken the plunge, you can enjoy the ride.
Our adventure has finally begun!
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
