It would be nice to spend some time in warmer climes, when our total snow-rain in Latvia turns into vile slush and the biting wind reminds us that we are, after all, Northern Europe. The desire had been brewing for a long time, but the plans — much slower. Traveling alone is rather sad: there's no one to spin yarns to, no one to share the wow-factor with, and a multi-headed hydra, as everyone knows, is far better than the pathetic solitary brain of a primate, even one augmented by Google's machine intelligence.
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Reflections led to buying tickets to Portugal, and for a grand total of 6 people, no less. Traveling as a six-pack is quite the adventure, as it turned out. In principle, this is to be expected, but when you don't know where to cushion the fall, it still catches you off guard.
This time I decided not to work remotely, but simply to take a two-week vacation; my friends got tickets for three.
As for the difficulties, they immediately started raining down on us like January hail on Daugavpils.
I should start by saying that I started a home renovation, and, remembering what it's like to live next to it while it's happening, I decided to slyly bail from the house for the duration. Naturally, I didn't manage to plan and buy all the materials in advance, even though the builders had dragged exactly a ton of putty and leveling compound up to my fifth floor. Nevertheless, right on Thursday, when I already had to head to Riga, they delivered 240 kilograms of corkwood panels from Poland, and instead of prepping for the trip and working, the builder and I hauled brown, holey blocks upstairs. The panels crumbled just like my life over the last three years, but I thought once again that even though I live haphazardly, and do things completely half-assed and askew, at least I am doing something. All too often, people just do absolutely nothing because they can't ever get their act together. However, this topic is currently quite trendy under the name MVP, minimal viable product, glorified by the book Lean Startup.
Let's get back, though, to the difficulties of our trip. First of all, for six people you have to rent a minibus, not a regular car. Even a regular car in some countries strictly requires a credit card, for example in Spain. In Portugal it's a bit simpler, but for a minibus you still need a credit card. All my friends treat credit with suspicion, so we had to order one.
