Back Over the Atlantic

One of my favorite parts of traveling is reflection of the trip. The plane trip home was grueling, but it allows time for reflection. European life is very different in many ways. The sights were awesome, and the history mind blowing. The depths of the roots that define the culture make me feel like a newborn transient. I was amazed by the churches that were built before the birth of Christ. The casual manner that the guides commented on buildings and parks that were designed thousands of years ago challenged my perspective of time and space. You see, in my world nothing is more than a few decades old, even our most historic places go back only a couple of hundred years.

The best way to appreciate what you have is to leave it for a bit. As much as I enjoy travel it only serves to prove how conveniently we live here in TV. My whole life is set up for me. Selfish as that sounds it is nice to return to a lifestyle that is extremely easy. We Americans love conveniences. The simple things that I enjoy taking for granted were difficult to come by over seas. Cold water or iced drinks of any kind were simply unavailable. Affordable shopping for everything in one store is a concept that is absent. Public bathrooms were not available or you had to pay to use a unisex hole in the floor on a very busy street corner. I found myself descending narrow winding staircases in restaurants, into centuries old stone basements to find tiny storage rooms that doubled for WC’s (water closets).

If you can imagine, no golf carts! Everyone walked. Parking would have been impossible so we relied on trains, buses, and taxis. Public transportation was confusing and expensive.

I enjoyed the leisurely way people lingered in cafés for hours. It is a luxury that we Americans seldom allow ourselves. A cup of espresso or a glass of wine could buy you a choice viewing spot for literally hours of conversation and people watching. Drinking, smoking and judging passersby’s was Erika’s take on the past time. I read somewhere the average time for a meal in France is 1 hour and 20 minutes: that same meal in the US averaged 11 minutes.

Erika will continue the journey on her own. She is a big history aficionado (geek), and will go on to visit Switzerland, Germany, Amsterdam and England. I envy her courage to travel to such unfamiliar places alone, but will breathe a sigh of relief when she touches down at Orlando International. She reminds me often that she is a “big girl”, but I still find it hard to let the birdies fly on their own.