Well, no one really knows about this blog yet because I just started it today. I figured it would be a good place to either let out everything from planning my trip or planning on moving to another city. That, and I could look back on my experiences and actually remember what the hell I did.
Honestly, my biggest regret coming back from my first trip to Europe was that I never actually took the time to sit down and write out everything that happened during the day.
Picture this:
You have just ended a full day of exploring an amazing city that took your breath away at every turn. Your mind is so full with new information, architecture that you took many photos of, and delicious food that filled your stomach. You believe that since everything was so awe-inspiring, that you would never forget anything from that day. Even if you do happen to forget a bit of small details from that day, you're not worried because you have photos and maybe little souvenirs such as tickets or stamps or a trinket that you collected along the way.
Well, you're wrong. Dead wrong. As much as that might help, you're never going to be able to experience the joy of what you felt during that day because everything fades. I think that's the sad reality of it all.
I forget a lot from my first trip to Europe. I most definitely have a ton of memories but names of buildings or quaint streets or amazing restaurants with mouthwatering food with which I could find the recipe for, are all gone. I can remember what the building looked like or how magical the food smelt or tasted and the conversation I had with a stranger in that one neighborhood.
But, everything is that neighborhood, or this person or that building that was in this area. Worst of all, that city that we passed through.
It's sad because there is small piece of me that believes I wasted an opportunity to sit down and reflect on my day. I should have taken the time to have all that information just sink it and then it would be accessible when I wanted to relive the experience.
Albeit, I'm not saying that my first ever trip was a waste or that I lost the taste of magic because my memory has faded. I am saying that I should have taken the time to sit down at some café, listen to the background music, watch the children play in the streets and couples sharing their love for one another all while writing down everything that I did that day.
But I didn't. However, pretending and describing makes me think that I did. What I am trying to say is that I lost an opportunity then but opportunity always has a way of coming back full circle.
I got my second chance recently. I'll tell you the story of how my trip to Turkey was born:
It was a Monday. Not only was it the beginning of the week with four long days ahead of me for the weekend, it also happened to be the specific Monday in the month where everyone is upset over something. So grumpy that it makes them take out all their anger on the first person they see.
First thing in the morning, I got my taste of being the target of someone's built up anger. I'm a theatre kid so excuse this example if you don't understand it. Have you ever played that game where the sole purpose is just to pass around this ball of invisible energy? You get to decide the shape, what type of energy and who you are going to pass it to when the ball is in your hands. Once you've made the decision to pass the ball to someone, that person catches it with the same shape and type of energy and turns it into their own ball of energy and then keeps passing it. The point of the game is that when someone has such a strong emotion, and they stay around someone for too long, well that emotion gets passed down and it's up to you to decide how you're going to handle it and shape it yourself.
I think anger is good example of this because, at least for me, when someone is angry towards me, I know that I'm going to become angry after as well.
That is exactly what happened that Monday morning.
This gentleman made me so mad for the rest of the morning that I became so fed up for the company that I am working for and had such a strong urge to just get up and leave. With the motivation of getting paid, I stayed. But not without the need to complain about it to my fellow coworkers.
This conversation spun into their frustrations with their jobs and then spun the other direction into vacation. They asked me about my trip to Europe - this conversation just made me so happy. It turned my mood around in ways that I hadn't realized.
We jumped into the topic of future experiences in our dream countries and they were talking about relaxing by the beach or hiking mountains out west or as far as taking a safari. All stories brought such hope to their eyes that I realized the trip that I wanted to take when I got the chance.
My dream trip was to fly into Turkey, explore the Greek Islands and the mainland, dabble into Egypt and then make my way to South Africa somewhere. Clearly, I had not done a lot of research on this trip to even tell you what cities I wanted to visit.
My worker pointed out that I was dreaming big, where there may be nothing wrong with that, it just might be a little difficult to plan a trip that big without taking so much time off.
They were right - definitely right, especially regarding money issues. I knew that I couldn't do a trip that big but I for sure knew that I needed to do something and I needed to do it soon. What convinced me was the realization that was I moving away to a new city to go into University for 4 years of my life before I go into a profession that will have me working full time for God only knows how long.
I know that is an exaggeration but it seemed to work in terms of motivation to at least look into flights and to see if I could afford it.
Well... I looked at the flights!
I don't need to hash out all the gory details and I don't need to reeeaaallllyyyy talk about money in such detail but in the end:
I'M GOING TO TURKEY.
