Everyone approaches the concept of travelling in a different way. Many people’s ideas may overlap or have certain aspects that are shared, but they do differ in little ways. Some people may see travel as a plan like you might draw up plans for a house. Others see travel is a board game, where each new step is based on the roll of the dice. While I tend to look at travel like a jigsaw puzzle, putting all the pieces together.
The thought had never truly occurred to me that I saw travel in this way. It was only a passing comment by my mother that got me thinking about it. Just the way I do things like grabbing at pieces until they all fit together and become the full picture.
No Traditional Jigsaw
When I did a little more thinking on travel as a jigsaw puzzle, it is not the traditional jigsaw puzzle. My travels are more like puzzles inside puzzles almost. The puzzle starts out as one big puzzle with just a couple of pieces. Before each of those pieces breaks out into some other pieces.
If you were to look at the starting puzzle for my upcoming Europe trip it has five main pieces. You might have seen me refer to these as stages in the past. But they are pre-cruise Europe, pre-cruise USA, Cruise, post-cruise Europe, and post-cruise USA. If you look at each piece, there are some smaller pieces that make each one up.
So, for example, pre-cruise Europe at this stage breaks down into some smaller parts. At the moment it includes time in Seoul, Vienna, Berlin & Manchester. Each of these smaller pieces than contains further smaller pieces such as flights, hotels, and attractions to visit.
Putting Together the Jigsaw
Putting the whole jigsaw together is not all that easy before leaving home though. With three levels of pieces, it can be a challenge. The big pieces, in this case, were easy to put together. In the end, the pieces on the next level down did require a little messing around. Getting them in just the right order did take a little manipulating, very much a reminder of a jigsaw.
But that third layer of the smallest pieces was a much greater challenge to make sense of. While a couple of pieces would fall into place before hand. Things like the hotels and the travel between places took some adjusting but got there in the end.
You see there are a whole bunch of little pieces that just do not seem to work together until you are in the right place. The pieces that include what to see, where to go and how to get around on a day to day basis.
More Pieces Than Needed
The biggest challenge in putting together the pieces in the second level is that there are many extra pieces. When you start trying to fill in that big piece of Europe, there are hundreds of different pieces you could fit in there. They do not always work together so it can take a little work to make it fit. Finding the pieces that are most appealing to you.
How does your travel jigsaw look
What does you travel look like, a jigsaw puzzle, a plan, or a board game? Are you getting your pieces together or just playing it by the roll of the dice. Let me know in the comments below.
