your favourite memories from a trip

[Nicstar]

Tell us about one of your favourite trips......whether it be a day trip, a few weeks or whatever. I really like hearing people's stories, with personal little bits in them......not just the bit about how to get to the hostel, what it was like, the best place to eat for cheap etc etc....I want to know the personal little tidbits that made a trip so great, so special. Not just that the view was great, not just that Paris was a city you always wanted to go to, but WHY.

I can understand, for people like Kim who have done massive long trips, it may be the whole trip, but break it down- I want to know about one part that will always stick out in your mind and make you all warm and fuzzy when you remember it, and why, and so on and so on. I like individual stories, I like individuals. ITs something I teach the children I look after- to lok at an individual.

Just call me nosy! ;D

(I'll tell you about mine later.....right now I am going to eat some lunch)

[jennifer]

Well, I think this is really a great idea!
I don't really know where to start though, there are so many special little details from a trip that lasted 2 months....

Well, for one thing, for those who read my stories while I was gone, you know I had just broken up with my ex a month before I left, which means a year ago! I was feeling so sad, it seemed as though I had nothing to look forward to when I came back. I sure was wrong!

The day I was leaving, I woke up really early as I couldn't sleep. My plane was only around supper time, but I wanted to recheck all my packing and planning. My mom had slept over at my place.

I awoke to her on the couch, staring into the depth of the wall. She couldn't sleep either! We had this great conversation, I felt we really connected, which hadn't happened for a long time. She was really scared but at the same time happy and proud that I was leaving all alone for Europe. It was really heartwarming to see my mom worry so much. You always say, that's what mothers are for and stuff, but it always feels special to actually feel the love!

Hope i'm not boring you, but you asked for "oowy-goowy" personal stuff hehehe!

Around lunch, the doorbell rang and when I answered the door, my best friend was standing there, tears in her eyes with a beautiful arrangement of Smarties with a little toy frog on top. (I always call my friend my little frog cause of a picture of her when she was small!).

I immediatly put that little frog in my daypack and kept it with me throughout my travels. Call me crazy, but I sometimes talked to it as though I was talking to my friend, it seems somehow it helped to "think" I wasn't talking to myself!

Well, ok, here's my favorite emotional part. When my mom, dad, friend and I got to the gate where they were going to drop me off, I got a sudden urge to run back home and forget all about this trip. I didn't want to go anymore. All the courage and time I had spent planning this trip just didn't matter anymore!

My mom practically dragged me out of the car! I started crying and crying as I hugged my mom, she was crying too. We couldn't let go! Ok, I know it's only 2 months, and I wasn't going to die, but we're 2 huge emotional people and still, it seemed I was leaving forever! (how was I to know after 2 months I'd be begging to stay in Europe!)

What deeply touched me was when I went to hug my dad, he was crying too. I must say I have seen my dad cry only once and that is when his grandmother died. So seeing my dad cry just gave me some sort of boost I needed to be happy all over again. I felt supported, I knew I'd make it ( at that point it seemed I was going a kamikaze for my country or something, why did I keep thinking it was so bad to spend 2 months in Europe!)

So anyways, after a tear session on the departure gate, I hopped along to my gate (of course I went to the wrong one, but that's a whole other story!!!) I felt so much courage and strenght inside knowing that no matter what, I had people back home who loved me and really cared.

After thinking I had no reason to come home because the one I loved wasn't waiting for me anymore, I came to realize that there is never only one person worth coming home too.

Even if I experienced very hard moments on an emotional basis becasue of my breakup as my trip continued, I felt so happy to have the memory of people crying for me, people who honestly loved me...


I know it seems like a corny story and may not be interesting to many, but I must say, when I got lost or felt like leaving it all behind and taking the plane back home, I didn't let go because of these people and it was a key moment in my travels!

xxxoxo

[me]

Au contrair, Jen! (or, however you say that in French )

it's a great story! very special.

- d

jennifer said:

I know it seems like a corny story and may not be interesting to many,

[jennifer]

Thanks David!

[Nicstar]

Jennifer that is a GREAT story! I loved it. Reminds us that travelling isn't just about seeing and experiencing another country- its also about personal growth.

(I forgot about this thread).

I have many special memories to choose from I don't know where to begin.

I'll choose a smaller one.

Background info: since a kid I've been obsessed with Ireland without knowing I was obsessed with Ireland....eg, I'd sit and stare at pictures from Ireland all the time, cut them out, talk about them to my parents and friends, talk about wanting to go there etc etc, but not actualyl aware it was always pics of Ireland. Then completely unrelated about 12 years ago I got right into the music of U2........completely unaware of the Ireland connection. That took about a year to find that fact out, that my the people that made my favourite music were from the country I've been obsessing over since I was 4.

So of course travel plans to Ireland intensified.

So, 1998, I was visiting my parents in the UK. They'd waited for me to go over before planning a trip to Ireland, knowing what it would do to me if they didn't wait for me! We caught the ferry over, and as we got closer and closer to arriving in Ireland, I got more and more excited. I spent most of the trip standing near the front, watching for land! Dad got this next bit on video... the captain announced the land we could just see ahead was Ireland, etc etc. I turned and grinned at my dad videoing me. Then as I turned back a U2 song came on my ear phones (it was a mixed cd with only one U2 song, cd on random!). It was weird the feelings I had, that exact moment I spy Ireland for the first time ever, and on comes a U2 song. It brought tears to my eyes.....

I remember telling my brother about it some years later, and the specialness of a song that was once not that special to me, just a "yeah its an ok song" kind of a track. My brother had that song included in his wedding for my benefit, and I got teary when it was on.....and he thought it was because of the wedding! heh.

[jennifer]

Wow, it's funny what a song can do to you! I tell you, humans are funny animals!

I really understand the feeling of wanting to see ireland so bad. Germany was the same for me once I started study german as a profession. It was eating me up!

[Marie]

Just curious, but what U2 song was it?!

[Libby]

That's a great story Jennifer. I particularly like the Smarties part. ;D

My favorite memory comes from a trip to Newfoundland a few years ago. My friends wanted to climb Gros Morne Mountain (806m high) and I really didn't think I could do it. I've always been on the big side and although I walk a lot and played hockey, climbing a mountain wasn't something I thought I could do. Slowly they wore me down and I agreed.

What an experience! It took us 2 hours of hiking to reach the base (approx. 300m up) and the final 500m is almost straight up. We reached the top early in the afternoon and the view almost brought me to my knees. You could see Caribou walking off in the distance! Hanging ponds and waterfalls! But the best view was of Ten Mile Pond and while I didn't take this picture, I have one of me sitting at this same spot.

www.k12.nf.ca/jakeman/grassroots02/main/Gros%20Morne%20Mtn%20view,%20MB.jpg

[jennifer]

Wow, it sure is stunning!

By the way, I did about the same thing in France when we went to Mont Blanc back in high school. I've always been quite chubby and thought it was nearly impossible to go up the thousands of feet! But man, when I got up there, huffing and puffing, I forgot all the pain and would do it again any day!

It's funny how fast you forget the pain for something beautiful!

xoxo
Jen

[Libby]

You are right. I forgot all about the pain when I saw the caribou off in the distance. It was magical.

There was pain though. LOL

It took us almost 8 hours (return) to climb that mountain and we all paid for it the next few days.

I'd do it again in a flash.

[jennifer]

We're suckers for torture when it comes to getting a beautiful picture in exchange!
;D ;D ;D ;D
xoxo
Jen

[Nicstar]

Marie said:

Just curious, but what U2 song was it?!

sweetest thing.

[kirabolton]

Nicstar said:

since a kid I've been obsessed with Ireland without knowing I was obsessed with Ireland.....

omg, that is so wierd. ever since i was little i have dreamed of going to ireland as well and i don't even know why. and now i've become obsessed with everything irish, like i am going to the chieftains in a few weeks (the concert) and am soooo excited. anyway, i just thought it was strange that their was somebody else obsessed with ireland as well.