My bestest friend Theresa came back from her 3 month travels through Europe. She left on August 22nd and came back on November 22nd. I was so excited to hear about her adventures traveling on her own to foreign places. She went from London, to Paris, to Argentina, to Portugal, to Prague, to Munich, to Croatia.....man she went everywhere. I was really inspired by her when I heard that she had decided to take this trip by herself. When we were in high school and in college we had always talked about how much we wanted to travel the world without having any expectations and allowing ourselves to have those experiences that come with traveling; the people you meet, the places you go, the things that you do without any preconceived notion of what you'll get.
Every week she posted new pics from the country she had just visited. Here are some of my favorite pics from her travels :)
She has so many more pictures but these were my favorites. She told me that traveling was a really great experience but trying to catch trains was tricky. There were time zone changes and sometimes trains only ran twice in a day; one at 7 am and another at 7 pm so you were waiting 12 hours in between departures. But Theresa is very resourceful and remembered that she had found a kindle at a lost & found at her work (lucky/awesome) so she was able to pass the time when she missed the 7 am train to Portugal. And in general she found that Eastern Europe was less expensive then Western Europe.
She also met some really nice people who were traveling the same as her. A lot of people just quit their jobs and hop on a plane and dont come back for a year or more and then come back feeling refreshed. The thought is romantic and spontaneous but it's not the norm in our society. We work more hours and days out of the year then anyone else in the world and when it comes to vacations, we get about 2 weeks or less. For some, a vacation is taking off for 3-4 months.
I would give anything to be able to take a vacation for 3 months. She did. Another friend of mine, Maedeh is a pre-school teacher and she heard of something called voluntourism. You pay for your flight but they provide housing and give you some spending money for food and such. And of course throughout your stay you are volunteering yourself to help in whatever way they need you. So you feel good about what you're doing and you're doing it in a foreign country. So it's a Win - Win.
All I know is, my friends are awesome and they do the things they say they wanna do :) I asked Theresa what her secrets were to traveling for 3 months straight. She said there are no secrets really - save up money for a year or two, stay in hostels/host family's, and watch how you spend your money out there. If you priortize your money so that you have what you need to travel from country to country (which is mainly by train or metro) then you can make it all the way without any problems. All I know is, if she can do it then so can I, or anyone else for that matter.
I'm really proud of her. Her next place of travels will be around Asia and she'll be leaving in February. So I'm going to be missing her again and wishing I was with her on her travels. I wish you well on your travels, Theresa and I'll be seeing you again before your next trip!
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