Nearly six years after flying to Maui and getting a job there, I booked a one-way ticket to Boston and started planning my exit from paradise.
Miraculously my ten boxes of “media mail” sent via the US Post Office arrived the same day (five weeks early) as myself. The dollar per two pound ratio was equivalent to that of Virgin America’s $25 per checked-in luggage with maximum 50 pounds and 62 linear dimensions per checked item. They were the only airlines allowing passengers to check-in up to 10 baggage items. They offered the lowest fees and most generous allowance. Is there an equivalent “airline” from Europe to the US?
The garden house behind the monument house in Utrecht
Barely three days after I and a thousand pounds of my “stuff” landed in Boston, I flew to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. It felt like winter. Although I had put on every layer possible, I was still cold. The next day, I got drenched in the rain while cycling on a rented bicycle.
Thus I find myself, five years after my last summer in continental Europe, living (or rather, camping) in the monument house next to the canal. Except for the fickle weather, I sometimes feel as though I had never left. I cycle everywhere in Utrecht, I hop on the train to Amsterdam, I walk to the shops for groceries, and I rendezvous with old friends. I work out at the sports club on the other side of the canal.
The only thing missing is my grand piano. Not true. A lot more is missing. Furniture. Books. Clothes. Utensils.
Everything is missing except two adjustable piano benches and my lavender bicycle.
After spending an entire month shedding my stuff in Maui, I am desperate to hold onto what little remains.
My next task is to plan travel to Germany and England. It shouldn’t be difficult, but I am resisting the urge to travel after constant movement for the past month: Kahului – Boston – Amsterdam – Vienna – Naples – Rome – Amsterdam – Utrecht
Eight years ago I wrote a four-part blog about traveling between Utrecht and London. I don’t think the options have changed but it should be much easier to book online or via a mobile app. You can fly, drive, take the coach, take the train, or take the ferry. Between Maui and everywhere else, however, you can only fly.
Organizing my sheet music took up much time in my papaya fig cottage on Maui