Day 10: Best Trip of Your Life
I have been blessed to have a number of incredible travel experiences in my lifetime. There has always been a deep wanderlust flowing through my veins. When I was a young girl, my family took a couple of trips to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to visit family. Even then, I knew that I loved to travel. When I was a little bit older, we took a family trip to Disney World in Orlando. That was probably my favourite trip of my childhood. I especially loved the “Around the World” exhibit in Epcot — where you could walk around a big lake and visit different countries, sample the native foods, and browse in the native shops. Then in high school, I traveled to England and Wales to sing in cathedrals with my high school chorale. It was my first international trip & I knew that I wanted more. During college, I took my first “solo” trip, flying across the country to Seattle, Washington. That trip was special to me in that it was my first time traveling alone. During my last year of college, I enrolled in a study abroad program that would take me to Kenya, Africa. After college, I had several jobs that required me to travel quite a bit. I visited the various regions of the United States, but typically only got to see those places from the inside of hotel conference rooms and rushed taxicab rides. In 2010, I decided to travel to Paris, France. There was no one in my life that wanted to go with me, so I decided to go it alone. Over the past ten years, I’ve also traveled to Bermuda and several spots in the Caribbean, including Jamaica; Cozumel, Mexico; the Cayman Islands; the Bahamas; and Grand Turk.
Amidst all of this travel, Kenya stands out as the best trip of my life. It really was extraordinary. We spent five days at Kenyatta University in Nairobi; two weeks on safari; and five days on the coast in Mombasa. I wrote fairly extensively about the journey in this series so I won’t rehash all of the details here. The other trip that stands out to me was Paris. It is extremely special to me because I overcame immense fears during that trip (traveling alone internationally to a place where I could not speak the language; traversing the catacombs; and more). Again, I’ve already written about that trip and you can check that out here. My other favourite trip was to Jamaica. It was the first trip that Matthew & I took together and it was wonderful in so many ways. I completely fell in love with the Jamaican people and their culture (and their food!). If I were to pick any place in the world to live outside of the states, Jamaica would rank high on my list. I know that the country is plagued with political problems as well as poverty, but their is a deep, rich happiness to that island that stretches far beyond the shallow tourist scene that most travelers get to experience.
So, there you have it. The best trips of my life. I am not sure when the next one will happen. Sadly, I’ve developed a terrible fear of airplanes in my late twenties that I’ve not been able to shake. My next big trip will be a road trip in which I will, hopefully, finally get to see my own great nation in all of its glory.
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I wanted to say my honeymoon (2003) or the trip my wife and I made to Aruba in 2001, but they are both a close 2nd to …. when Alison and I went on a Caribbean Cruise just after we got engaged in the summer of 2002. BEST trip ever!
The Caribbean is amazing, isn’t it? It is definitely one of my favourite vacation spots, I don’t think I’ll ever tire of it. 🙂
Oh! my god, you went to so many places. Now I just love you more for this. Going to read those posts soon! Do read mine!
Thanks, Farzana. 🙂 I have been to quite a few places & there are still so many more to see.
You’ve been so many places! That’s so amazing. My anxiety makes me never want to go anywhere new/meet new people, so I’ve never traveled anywhere. Jamaica has always been on my list of places I want to go!
Travel can definitely be a huge anxiety-trigger. In fact, there was a point in time where I would get physically sick (from nerves) every time I traveled. Luckily when I overcame my general anxiety, the major travel anxiety went away, too.
Tim is OBSESSED with Jamaica! You can stay in gorgeous houses for relatively cheap if you go off the beaten track. Our two contenders for our vacation in March was Hawaii and Jamaica. In the end we did Hawaii because it was much shorter plane and travel time with the kids. I think Jamaica should be a “kids-free” trip for us in the future. I also have a deep fear of flying. I take drugs and I still cry before I have to board a plane! Every time I do it I swear “never again!” and then I always do it again, lol. But seriously, never again *serious face*.
We are in the same exact boat. I take the strongest drugs that my doc will give me and I am still a bundle of nerves. Ugh. I hate it. I haven’t been on a plane since I was a couple of months pregnant. I really don’t know if I can do it again. At least I have so much of the states to explore yet which can be done by car/train.
I love that you’ve traveled alone! I would totally do something like that: )
We went on a cruise a couple years ago and Jamaica was one of the stops and it was so so nice! You’re right, the people there are just so happy. We’ve talked about going again.
Yea, solo travel definitely has its good points & its bad. I loved the freedom to do exactly what I wanted whenever I wanted to. On the other hand, it does get lonely and sometimes it’s hard not to have someone to share all of the special-ness with. I’m still really glad that I did it though, great experiences. 🙂