Hey Lovely Readers!
Happy Tuesday! On this lovely day I would love to take your mind off of whatever you are doing currently and talk to you about travelling! As you have probably guessed, I love travelling so much. I think one of the reasons why I am struggling to find an appropriate job is because I’m trying to find something that will allow me to spend my life travelling. I want something that will give me the freedom to do what I truly love to do. I’ve always debated moving to Europe for some time. I’d be able to use my anthropology degree, and I’d learn new cultures and seeing how various people around the world live. It’s just something I truly love.
Anyways, I’ve always had the travel bug. When I was in grade 10, I went through a really bad phase and was just getting through it and coming out the other side. I wanted to do something for myself and I was determined to travel. At first I chose to make a list of my top places I wanted to go to and I thought that I would hit all these places when I graduated. However, in grade 10 I found out that my top place was achievable and for the next year! My school let out an announcement saying that the next trip would be in Greece, and of course I had to go! Both my friend and I talked to our parents and both agreed to the trip as along as we could get jobs and pay for it ourselves. So, the next day I went out and got a job at a local restaurant through a friend and we both became dishwashers. We spent that year doing one of the most disgusting jobs, but not caring because Greece was in our future.
Greece was amazing. The school did an amazing job putting together the perfect travel schedule. We travelled throughout all of Greece starting and ending in Athens. Everyday we’d get on a bus and travel to city after city experiencing the towns and seeing ancient temples and ruins. One day we took a day cruise out and visited three different islands (I’ll do another post on this later and specifics). I had no idea what the importance was of everything we saw until I took a classics course in university. We learned about Delphi, Mycenaean architecture, Poseidon’s Temple, Olympic stadiums and so much more. I had no idea that these were that important. I learned about them on the trip, but I didn’t necessarily understand the importance until later. It still amazes me the places we went to, and the things I saw and all in a week during spring break. We also had gone around Easter, and one night we were out walking around, and groups of people were walking through the streets with candles. My friends and I bought some and joined them too. They were all chanting and a priest came out and started the Easter procession. It was amazing. I was amongst the people, learning their culture, seeing just how much religion and practices impact people. Amazing.
The trip was cleansing for me. I made so many friends when I was just coming out of a time of despair. I also learned so much about myself. I knew that university was somewhere I needed to be. I had to go, and now looking back I’m not even surprised that I chose to become an anthropologist. I was in love with the things I saw and the people I met. It was my favorite part of the whole trip. I still plan on going through my pictures to see just how much history I really saw
Teens, if you are reading this, it is totally worth it to go on a school trip. The teachers do give you free reign to wonder with groups of students. They take a step back and let you experience the trip without them breathing down your neck. It also helped me to learn what I needed to do the next time I planned a trip. I learned how to spend my resources and time. One thing I did learn was that a week of straight up temples is boring. So, try to add different things to you trip you wouldn’t normally want to do. Sure see the ruins, but also go see artwork, or go for an evening stroll through town. Don’t focus on seeing one type of thing on a trip. Experience a little bit of everything (Like different time periods)! Also, don’t jam pack your time with sightseeing. You only have a limited time and you’ll be very tired with time change. Make sure you get some time to relax and hang out. Remember it is your vacation! Adults, I think the group trips would be very much like this and it was awesome to have most of our daily activity planned for us. We did get lots of free time too to do what we wanted, so I highly recommend a group trip too!
I hope you enjoyed this post! I will definitely try to go more into specifics about interesting sights to see in the future, as I have a lot of photos that I want to share badly and I have no room for in this post! If you went on a good trip recently, let me know what you saw! I would like to know for my future travels!
– Erin
Avenue 23 