Three weeks ago I was in St. Augustine Beach, Fl, strolling A1A Beach Blvd, ice cream in hand. I was thinking about life, and my current position, and wondering what my next move might be.  
I love van life. I love these little road trip adventures. But I felt something missing… or perhaps, the nearing moment of a new leap.

“What would I do if there were no limits?” I ask myself this often…
“Greece, international travel, but not alone- with friends”.

I got back to the van, and went on workaway.info (a work exchange website with opportunities all over the world). There were no new opportunities in Greece. I sighed, and logged out and onto Facebook instead. At the very top of my news feed, my friend Nicolle’s status read; “Considering booking a trip to Greece. Any tips or suggestions?”

Nicolle is a friend from back home in MN. I met her a few years back at a motorcycle meet up. When I saw her vintage Honda, I instantly knew we would be friends. And that we were; sharing a passion for travel and adventure.

My heart skipped a beat. I had been telling myself the only reason I wasn’t already doing international travel was because I didn’t want to go alone. And here, one of my favorite people ever was already planning the trip!
I’m not sure I believe in signs, but this was the exception. I immediately messaged her!

Over the next few days, I looked obsessively for plane tickets. The most reasonable one was $1,200.
Nicolle had 10 days off to make this trip. Since I am travel blogging/vlogging I have unlimited time.

I started thinking about how I could extend this trip to be longer and remembered I have another friend traveling to the Ukraine this summer. I contacted him, and our dates aligned perfectly. My 10 days had turned into 3 weeks!

I was looking at tickets again the very next day, when I got an email notification from Crewbay.

Crewbay is a website connecting captains to potential crew. I’ve wanted to learn to sail for a long time now and have been on this website for six months.

The message was from a captain I had talked to months ago. He had since moved locations and was now in Europe looking for crew. I told him I was already planning a trip to Greece, but somehow again, the dates aligned to be exactly what he needed.

I was in shock. Was there really a way to make this all work together? 
Helping on the boat would be in exchange for my cabin/ food/ and onboard expenses, which would actually be much cheaper than continuing in the van. And after scowering google flights and skyscanner, I also found all the flights I would need throughout the summer, for half the price of the original Greece flight.

My three weeks had turned into 3 months!

The only issue was the captain needed someone ASAP, and so I booked my flight only 12 days out.

The next two weeks felt like a whirlwind; Driving up to PA (where I stayed with my friend until the day of my flight), finishing my website, switching phone plans, getting everything in order, packing and a whole lot of research.

But come the Monday of the flight I was somehow ready to go, and boarded the plane nervously.

I should mention at this point that I have never traveled out of the country. A few steps into Canada and Mexico, yes, but never from a plane and never overseas. The US has become my playground, but this was different. I felt as if I had grown up and was about to enter the real world. I was all nerves.