The First Stop on My Trip Around the World
“Excuse me, are you travelling to Cancun?” a man stood in front of me so I can’t show my boarding card to the boarding desk.
“Erm, yes why?”
“Do not leave your hotel resort, it is too dangerous!”
03:30 am, Monday 13th December 2021, Germany
This wake up was a huge struggle. Almost everything I owned had been moved out of my flat and put into storage, even my bed, so I lay there on an airbed in my bedroom, hearing the excruciating sound of the alarm going off. Honestly? Even with all the excitement this was a tough wake up.
I got myselves ready, jumped in the shower grabbed my clothes I had set out the night before. A quick brush of the teeth and I was ready to go. I hauled my rucksacks up onto my back and I left my flat for the last time. There was a lot of mixed emotion in leaving the flat. Yet as I boarded my first train which would take me to the main station where I would take another train to Frankfurt airport, my spirits lifted dramatically.
I was smiling and happy, despite it being ridiculously early. In fact, I was so excited for an early morning the ticket inspector looked at me very suspiciously. She did not like me smiling that much at that time in the morning, she even came and asked me what I was taking pictures of. I got the chance to travel in first class on the way to the airport (but I drew the line at the €500 upgrade to business for the flight 🙁 ) Deutsche Bahn (The German train company) first class is basically slightly roomier and with slightly cushier seats than the normal section. This did seem like a bit of a waste of money, but luckily, I got to upgrade for free because of a voucher I got on some chocolate box.
06:30 am, Monday 13th December 2021, Germany
I finally arrived at the airport in Frankfurt, after getting a little too excited about the fact they still have these old-school departure boards where the tiles flip over to show the most recent flights, I checked in my bags. Naturally there was some panic from my side about the weight of the bags and various other documents, but I needn’t have worried at all, the woman behind the desk in Frankfurt checked my documents briefly and I was given my boarding cards and told to go straight through security, pheww!
After security I sat for a while outside the first-class lounge, in the comfiest seats I could find and tried to figure out what it is all these people coming out of the bougie lounge do for a living.
Then it happened, just as my flight was about to board. “Excuse me” “Excuse me, are you travelling to Cancun” a man stood in front of me so I can’t show my boarding card to the boarding desk.
“Erm, yes why?”
“Do not leave your hotel resort, it is too dangerous.
What was I supposed to say to that? Now with hearts beating and feeling a tiny bit terrified about I had let myselves in for, I boarded the plane. I sat down and tried to relax, I desperately tried to keep up my happynness a bit about the strangeness of the situation that had just happened. The truth was that I was very nervous, although I didn’t want to admit it.
15:00 pm, Monday 13th December 2021, Mexico
I arrived at Cancún airport after a deeply boring 12-hour flight. I absolutely despise sitting still for long periods of time, but this time it really was for a good cause. I thought alot about the enormity of the situation. I basically realised that this trip will either be the best thing I have ever done, or the worst mistake of my life. I quit my job and left everything behind to come travel, so I better make damn sure it’s worth it!
Security at Cancún airport was no problem at all, and the staff were all eager to get everybody through as quickly as possible, it seemed like two flights had arrived from the US at the same time, and they didn’t want to deal with long queues. After security, I waited for what felt like an eternity for my bags. There was me and one older, angry looking German woman left waiting for her suitcase. Why is my luggage taking so long? It became a little bit tense as I had a grand total of 0 clothes in my hand luggage so I would have literally just been left with the clothes which I were standing up in – not a great feeling. There you go, you live and learn all these handy travel tips, but in this case, my bag came through no problem at all after about 30 minutes. I put on my backpack and gave a sympathetic smile to the older lady, who had now recruited about 3 staff to help her watch the conveyer and lift her bag when it came, and I walked towards the exit.
We noticed the counter for the bus company I had been researching called ADO buses, so I headed over and bought two tickets to Playa del Carmen. The tickets cost $216 MXN which was about €9.22 at the time of writing.
17:00 pm, 13th December 2021, Mexico
I took the bus over to my hostel and everything was surprisingly simple. I arrived at the bus stop took a quick look at the incredible main street in Playa del Carmen, saw all the beautiful lights and bunting and decided I would come back without my bag in a minute.
In that moment, all the nerves floated away, and I was faced with this beautiful town surrounded by smiling happy people enjoying their holidays or working in the tourist hotspots. The one, slightly alarming thing was the armed police driving around, but they are here to make sure that the tourist regions do not see repeats of the violence which some of them have seen recently. I dropped my bag off at my hostel and headed back into town. In town I got some tacos and a drink. This was my first ever taste of Mexican food in Mexico, and it was delicious. I took a lot of pictures of that evening, but I was so exhausted (I had been up for 23 hours) so it is perhaps best that those never see the light of day, or the blue sleep stopping light of your phone. Nonetheless, I had made it!
This was the first destination on my trip (which now feels like a quest) to find the best spots across the world!
Fantastic living the dream glad you are having a wonderful exciting journey so far 😀 glad.the food etc is all nice.