It's getting close to a year since we first left for our excellent adventure, and calling it excellent is an understatement and a half. Ever since we've been back, and there's been a moment for my mind to wander, all I can think of is this amazing trip. In this quick writeup, I'll try to summarize a few things about the experience, as a way of closure for this trip. Though I could write forever, I'll try and keep it short.
Interestingly, if you asked either of us how we came up with the idea for this trip, neither would have an answer. The idea kinda came out of thin air and next thing we knew, we were saving up and looking at flights. The only planning we did was draw up a map of places we wanted to go, and try to get to as many as possible within the two months. Even while we were there, we only booked ahead to the next place we were going, no further. Regardless of how the trip was conceived, it was my first real traveling experience, and proved to be a major accomplishment in my/our lives.
While the entire trip was amazing, my favourite part was our stay in Germany with Uncle Robert, Natalia, and Jacob. Their hospitality was unreal, and they couldn't have been better hosts. I truly cannot thank them enough. I must also, once again, thank Brigitte (sic?) for letting us use her room during our stay.
Though it's so hard to choose, if I had to pick a second favourite part, I think I would choose our stay on Plakias. As Brigitte and Uncle Robert said it would be, it was a very peaceful change from the constant go-go-go we'd been doing most of the trip. Not that I disliked constantly moving to see all we could, it was nice in Plakias to just spend time together and not really have anything to see/do but wander the mountain hills and go to the beach. The memory that sticks out the most for me in Plakias, was the evening that we went to the beach right below our hotel and made a sandcastle as the sun was setting over the ocean. That was a stellar experience, undoubtedly.
What surprises me the most about our trip, was just how smoothly it went. We really only ran into two problems; almost missing the train to Paris, and our bogus adventure in Bari. Of course we got lost multiple times and the whole, 'we only speak English', thing came into effect once or twice; but all in all, it was way smoother than I thought. On the emotional end of the spectrum, we did great there as well, with no major meltdowns between the two of us. The only real meltdown (if you could even call it that) I can remember from myself, was in Paris, where I was struggling to read the map, and was getting real frustrated. Luckily, Danielle kept her cool, and took over that operation.
Throughout the trip I learnt many things about the two of us as well as the world in general. Prominently, I learned that commonsense can get you very, very far in life. We heard so many horror stories before we left about how people get pickpocketed, ripped-off, etc, but it now seems to me, that 99% of those cases could have easily been avoided with a little commonsense. I also learned that English truly is the international language; almost every single place we went, we could communicate in English with no problems, making it very easy for first time Eurotravelers. It is also important to note how friendly people are in general, many a time, random strangers would ask if we needed help, without us even requesting any (including the French by the way).
Robert Wilson
