European Adventure

Photo taken by the author

“I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.”

– Susan Sontag

As I mentioned, travelling is one of the areas where I experience a heightened level of adventure.

I have been able to travel to two different continents over the last three years: Europe and Africa.

As it would be, I set foot on both lands for six weeks each and travelled by myself for the majority of the time.

I’ll start with Europe.

I went here after completing six years of post-secondary education, coming out with a Business degree and an Information Technology diploma.

I travelled with a tour group, on my own, and got to see 19 countries in five weeks. I then stayed for a week in London.

The whole trip was an epic adventure for me. I really enjoyed the whirlwind experience in seeing the vast majority of the countries in Western Europe.

I took the most amount of pictures I had ever taken on a single trip to date, totalling more than 7,000, on my Canon PowerShot digital camera.

Here are some of the highlights of this adventurous voyage:

Paris – Just being in this city felt majestic. Climbing to the top level of the Eiffel Tower and see the amazing, panoramic view of the city; exploring the limitless number of art in the long-stretching wings of the glass pyramid at The Louvre, and, of course, our bus driver just going for it in merging across eight lanes of traffic at an uncontrolled, and very hectic, traffic circle at the Arc de Triomphe was an exciting, adrenaline rush, for sure.

Rome – I thoroughly enjoyed touring both the Roman Forums & Colosseum, complete with an amazing tour guide who was extremely passionate about Roman history and made Rome come to life. This was following by eating Europe’s famed gelato ice cream while visiting the Spanish Steps. Other memorable events were tossing a coin into Trevi Fountain, and seeing the main attractions of Vatican City: The Vatican museums, St. Peter’s Basilica, and the Sistine Chapel – all of which were breathtaking to the eye.

Greek Islands – We took a break from the tour bus and hopped on a cruise ship around five Greek islands, including: Mykonos, Rhodes, Santorini, Crete, Patmos, as well as a stop in Kusadasi, Turkey, where I got to see the ancient, Biblical city, Ephesus. My favourite island was Santorini, with its renowned white-washed, blue-domed architecture, set amidst in the Aegean Sea.

London – In one week I got to see more than 25 of the top sites London has to offer, including Big Ben, Churchill Museum, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster bridge, to name a few. I loved exploring this iconic and historic city all by myself, and it was a very thrilling and productive week.

This trip meant a lot to me because my dad had gone to Europe after he completed High School, and I wanted to follow in his footsteps. I always loved hearing the stories he would tell me about his European travels and I wanted to be able to have similar stories to share with my kids one day.

It was an adventure because this was the first time I had visited a different continent, outside of North America.

It was a very exciting time for me, especially with all the planning and preparation that went in beforehand and then being able to live it and see it – right before my eyes.