“Travelling — it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.”
The sun is shining. The blue sky is speckled with puffy clouds. The air is still. It is actually warm at 40°. Today is a lovely day. The dogs went out, came back inside for a treat then went back out again. They are still in the yard. They are my barometers.
I have favorite places. The first, as you might figure, is Ghana. It is a second home to me. When I went back after so many years, it was very different than when I had lived there, but in some ways it was very much the same. I recognized my Bolga even though it was now huge. I easily found my school and house. On market day, I wandered the market so much bigger than my market had been. I felt comfortable. I felt at home.
Portugal is on the list. I went there with my parents. We always had a deal. I would drive if they paid for the car. We traveled from Lisbon to the Douro Valley. We stopped along the way. My mother and I climbed a hill to see Iron Age ruins. We stopped at Roman ruins still being excavated. The town of Óbidos was one of my favorite stops. I took the narrow walkway along the castle walls which surround the town. The view was extraordinary. If I had to imagine a castle, it would look like the one in Óbidos. Miranda do Douro was another stop. We wandered the narrow streets and stopped for lunch at what looked almost like an old Western saloon. It was an enchanting town.
One summer my friend and I traveled from Venezuela to Rio. That trip lasted almost eight weeks. I can’t even begin to describe all the places I loved. Here is the short list: Ecuador, especially the old town in Quito, the gold museum in Bogota, the salt mine in Columbia, Puno and Lake Titicaca, the Iguazu Falls, the altiplano in Bolivia, La Paz and the Parana River trip from Paraguay to Argentina. There are more but this is enough.
I have been lucky to see so much of the world. The vow, the promise, I made when I was eleven was to travel, and it was fulfilled.
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February 8, 2024 at 3:45 pm
It’s great to see the world and it’s great you could see so many places! And we are very glad to hear about your adventures on this blog 🙂
I’m still with my relatives in the southern part of this country and I’ll try to go home by train tomorrow. Unfortunately it’s carnival time in Germany so many drunken people will take the train too. Monday is the main day for carnival festivities so I hope it’s still okay tomorrow.
February 8, 2024 at 8:15 pm
Birgit,
If you told eleven year old me where I would travel, I’d be amazed, but I don’t think I would be surprised because I had made that promise to myself to travel. I remember when I saw Christ of Corcovado Mountain in Rio in real life. It looked as if it had jumped right out of my geography book. I was thrilled.
February 8, 2024 at 11:29 pm
Hi Kat,
I started traveling late in life as part of my work. I love it, because every place I went I got to work with and got to know my international colleagues. BTW, cloudy today but we only hit a pleasant 70°.
February 8, 2024 at 11:39 pm
Hi Bob,
Africa is what got me traveling the world. I was so excited when the Peace Corps said I had a posting in Africa. I immediately called and accepted it. Amazing!