F*** packing your life into a backpack

Depart: Brisbane 20:45 Monday August 6
Stop over: Dubai 04:30 Tuesday August 7
Arrive: Amsterdam, The Netherlands 13:30 Tuesday August 7
This idea, plan had been in existence for well over twelve months and almost twelve months ago J and I made the decision that we were going to pack-up our Brisbane selves and carry them in a backpack across to the other side of the world to live for a good couple of years. This initial decision, caused many, many more decisions to be made. We first off were wanting to move to Barcelona, Spain. Well that plan went bust when took our time to start learning Spanish, and also discovered getting a visa to work in Spain was far too difficult. Then the ideas popped into our heads to look into moving to Amsterdam, The Netherlands or Berlin, Germany. Well again to get a visa to these countries meant that you had to be sponsored first by a company, we also realised apart from a tiny amount of German we both learnt in primary school and in high school, this would not get us by....So we some how picked out of a hat of where to move to in the United Kingdom, because that would be the easiest visa for J to get and I could get a UK passport as my Mother was born in England. We chose Edinburgh, Scotland, mostly because we wanted somewhere that wasn't London, to be a bit individual. And mostly I have no idea how we came to that decision. I think it was mostly J's idea.
It will be J's first long hall flight, his first time visiting multiple countries in one big hit, this was a huge deal.
We went to a STA travel agent in September last year, and looked at flights, the travel agent found a bargain; $999.90 each, one way to Amsterdam flying with Emirates, with one stop over on August 6. The travel agent had decided to nab the bargain, and booked it for us anyway, before we took too long deciding and the cheap opportunity disappeared before eyes. After that initial step, we found it reasonably easy to make the decisions about our holiday travelling around Europe,  before we settled in Edinburgh. We booked accommodation city by city, country by country. We made the decision to get multi-flex Eurail pass to travel from city to city, country to country. J applied for his UK youth mobility(holiday work) visa and I applied for my UK passport, we were both successful in getting them.
By late May, early June this year we had finished the booking and paying off, of our holiday around Europe and the UK, everything was booked a paid for, this was happening!
August 6, 2012 came around much quicker than expected. We had both finished work by July 21, partied hard with our workmates, said goodbye/see ya later to friends and family. J had taught my family how to use Facebook and Skype so they could see what we were up to. Then the night before came around, we were mostly organised in what we were taking with us, though we still had the small task of packing it all into our backpacks. We had the help of J's Mum, a professional packer and the most organised person in the entire face of the planet. We grabbed what clothes we were taking while she rolled, with much difficulty J and her had managed to close his backpack. Then it was my turn, holy mother of god, this was the most painful experience ever, I culled and culled again. I was finally brought to tears while culling my underwear, I was adamant if I was going to leave one of my fabulous new pairs of underwear behind. I cried, then J's Mum cried, this was actually happening. F*** packing your life into a backpack!!!
Then it was morning, we spent the first half of the day with my family, just having a chilled morning with them. We then got home finished packing little things, got changed for our flight. J's parents came home, my Mum and brother came round ready to take me to airport. We said goodbye to J's Nan and the family dog Pirate. We were off to the airport.
Saying goodbye to J's Mum, Sister, Dad, my Mum, Brother, Sister, Brother-in-law, my two nieces, aged 5 and 9, and my long time best friend was difficult. Our parents all cried, and eventually I was broken to tears, before we had to walk behind the entrance down to customs and wave our final goodbyes.
We were late to our flight, so late we almost missed it, we didn't even hear our names over the PA, we ran like hell to our gate! We were on our flight, this was happening! Apart from hitting a woman in the face with my camera, when I was getting my bag out of the overhead luggage compartment, which reduced me tears once more after she yelled at me, it was an okay flight.
I'm hoping this adventure will be slightly hard, but that we'll come out the other side better for it. I'm hoping some sh** goes wrong (we already missed our first train from Amsterdam to Berlin) because that is truly when you find adventure. I hope we fail, get pissed off, cry some more, fall over and then get back up, so that we smile, laugh, and have the time of our lives, because that is what travel is all about.