The World Race offers a variety of different life experiences during your 11 month journey. In my opinion, travel days are one of the most interesting experiences as a racer. They rarely go as planned and are often full of surprises. “Hurry up and wait,” is usually our mantra.
My hope is that this blog gives you an inside look at what travel days are like on the race.
Here’s our journey from Bucharest, Romania to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Hello Month 9!
Wednesday, August 24th
11:00 AM – Load up, leave Dragonesti and head towards Bucharest.
3:00 PM – Arrive at the airport in Bucharest and snack on massive amounts of Cherrios as they were the only team food we could find after driving 4 hours with no snacks or lunch stops.
4:00 PM – Commence all sorts of airport activities: yoga, coloring, life chats, YouTube video watching, card games (Phase 10, Hearts, Nerts, etc.), coffee dates, all squad meetings and setting up camp. PS: Whose feet smell?
11:00 PM – Coffee date with the one and only Anna Lapp. This has seemed to become a norm for us at airports, midnight coffee dates and life chats!
Thursday, August 25th
2:30 AM – Bedtime! Find an unoccupied space, use your bag as a pillow and join the pile of people.
6:00 AM – Rise & Shine. Repack, change thy clothes (maybe?) and head down to check-in.
8:30 AM – Find your gate and spend the last of your local currency on BK french fries because, why not?
10:00 AM – Take the shuttle to your airplane and wait for takeoff!
10:00 AM – 11:45 AM – Flight from Bucharest, Romania to Istanbul, Turkey.
7 hour layover: Pay for an overpriced Starbucks coffee, sit with an old teammate for two hours catching up and snacking on all sorts of airport goodies (like fresh croissants).
Sneak away from the masses of people with your squad leader for some peace and quiet. Find a nice nesting spot where you proceed to take a three hour nap only to be abruptly woken up by an old man who thinks you have missed your flight and is yelling at you in a strange language.
Walk around and sample all the free Turkish Delights. Buy some Baklava because who knows when you’ll have it again & take the trolley to your plane.
6:30 PM – 11:45 PM – Flight from Istanbul to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia! Watch the sunset from 33,000 feet. Watch a couple movies, fall asleep from lack of sleep and wake up to what you think is the plane crashing but is actually just the plane landing safely at your destination.
Friday, August 26th
12:00 AM – 1:30 AM – Meander around customs, border control and baggage claim.
1:30 AM – At this point everyone is basically a walking zombie and finds somewhere to collapse for the night and sleep.
6:15 AM – Wake up feeling intoxicated and under the influence of something because of the lack of sleep you’ve gotten yet you’re expected to be fully functioning adult as you make your way through the parking lot looking for your transportation for the day.
7:15 AM – Locate transportation and load up!
8:30 AM – Arrive to your final destination, find the closest cup of coffee and celebrate AFRICA with your people!
Total Time: About 46 hours.
Some people hate travel days, I love them. Some travel days are brutal and extremely exhausting, others are full of free food, movies and beautiful sunsets.
You just never know what you’re going to get on travel days, but that’s simply life on the race.
Whats even crazier than all this … I only have two travel days left before I’m headed back home. Wowza.
Love y’all.
