My deep desire to visit Greece came from something my dad told us. Once we shared our plan to be abroad, my dad shared a story with us of how my mom had traveled with her dear friend Paulina Vasquez to Greece. That story of their travels brought with it a desire to go where mom had gone, to see what she had seen, taste what she had tasted, and experience the culture she had experienced. I saw it as though it was a way to connect with her. I wished to know everything I could about my mom, and for the most part, dad shared what he could, but this felt like a way for me to bond with her in my way.
Greece was full of all sorts of wonderful sights, from the ancient ruins to the beautiful cities, from the breathtaking views of the striking blue waters to the majestic mountains and forests. We took our time soaking in as much as we could. With each new sight, I felt as if I was connecting with mom in a way that I could have never dreamed of had I never left home. My favorite places were the ancient cities and historic districts. The fact that so much history had been preserved and that the buildings were still relatively intact, simply amazed me. I was beginning to wish I could help create such buildings that could stand a quarter of the test of time as the Panathenaic Stadium.
Aside from the ancient ruins, we visited different museums to see the delicate parts of history, different national parks to behold the beauty that was in the nature of Greece, the different islands, including Crete. We spent nearly a month in Athens alone taking in everything from the typical tourist sights to the smells, tastes, and culture of the Plaka District. It was simply amazing to experience the country of Greece.
After our stay along the Mediterranean Sea, we ventured into Spain. Spain held Rocky's interest almost as much as Greece held mine. Rocky's mom's family came from Barcelona, and while her mom didn't particularly say it, Rocky knew that her mom was excited that she had decided to visit the place where her great-grandparents had once lived. It was nice to have one of us fluent in the language of the country where we were visiting. We felt less restricted in our adventures while we were in Spain. The architecture and designs of Spain, yet again, drove my interest in building and construction. I couldn't wait to tell my dad that I had found my calling, though I was going to wait until I returned to tell him in person.
By the time we had finished our stay in Barcelona, it was the end of February. We flew to Bergen, Norway to start our first cruise. We decided that with the variety of waterways, it would be unique to travel via ship to see part of the northern continent. Bergen began our cruise up and down the Norwegian Coast. I was excited about the Norwegian Coast cruise. We planned to spend as much time outside at night as we could. Our goal for the trip was to see the Northern Lights, the Aurora Borealis.
Our cruise lasted two weeks. In those two weeks, we saw beautiful, ancient rock carvings, visited historical landmarks, and museums. The most memorable part of our trip north happened over a few days. We stayed in Alta for two days followed by Tromsø. In Alta, we had so much fun that we nearly left the rest of the cruise behind but stayed the course. We spent part of the night outside as we went searching for the Northern Lights on a dogsled ride. We felt like we were middle of nowhere. If it were not for the guides and the dogs, we would have been lost on our own.
The sky on the night of the dogsled ride was completely clear. I had never seen such beauty looking up at the expanse above in all our travels. It was picture perfect and none of the pictures that I took even came close to representing the majestic beauty on display. I felt like I was in a whole new world. I had no idea there was such color in the stars alone, and to add the blue, green, and purple hues of the Northern Lights, I could hardly breathe. I looked at Rocky, and she was just as awestruck as I. I even began to cry a little at the beauty, though I blamed it on the cold wind hitting my eyes as the dogs pulled us along when Rocky confronted me about it later that night. That view brought back so many memories and feelings, ones I had once wanted to forget but now secretly held dear in the bottom of my heart. Being under the stars always had an effect on me that I couldn't quite place, but at that moment, I welcomed it.
The following day, we found ourselves learning how to cross-country ski. Growing up in southern California gave me little opportunity to go skiing. Rocky's parents had taken her skiing in Utah when she was little, but she said she didn't like it, so she never went again. Cross-country skiing was more of a workout than I bargained for, and I found myself at the back of our group with Rocky as we trekked across the snow for what seemed like days but was only a few hours. After our skiing adventure, Rocky and I went back to our ship and slept until the next morning.
When we awoke the next day, we found ourselves docked in Tromsø. During our stay, we walked along heated sidewalks to take in the panoramic view of the city, which only added to my desire to create such beautiful buildings and structures. In Tromsø, we found ourselves learning the sport of curling. I had never experienced something like that before. Not only did we learn the ice sport of curling we also did more trekking, though this time it was on snowshoes instead of cross-country skis. I was way more stable on the snowshoes than the snow skis. We then cruised down the coast to two more cities before ending the cruise in London.
London began our two-week tour of the UK. We left London to start in Northern Scotland. Our first destination to visit in the north was Inverness. Drenched with an immense amount of history, we stopped at Culloden Moor before heading to Edinburgh by train. We stayed in Edinburgh for a few days soaking in the culture and sites. From visiting the National Scottish Museum to attending art galleries along the Royal Mile to shopping more than we should have on Princes Street, we thoroughly enjoyed Edinburgh.
Manchester became our next destination, where we caught a Manchester United football match against a team that I hadn't heard of before with the initials SUFC, though I was sure that Stevien would have known lots about the team; naming players, coaches, statistics, and records. It was such a great match. Manchester United ended up winning by one goal in the ninety-first minute bringing the score to 2-1. Stevien was right again about it being a game of minutes.
After Manchester, we went to Cardiff and caught a different sport's match. This time we watched the game of rugby. Rocky and I both had no idea what we were watching, but we had so much fun. To us, it looked like a mixture of soccer and football, but different than both. The fans on either side of us kindly explained what was happening and what each term meant. By the end of the match, Rocky and I felt as though we had an idea of what the game was about, albeit a very rough idea. Wales was quickly followed by a visit to Bath. The city of Bath was another architectural dream come true. The variety of buildings and styles that we had seen along our way kept me in awe for our entire trip.
We finally made our way back to London where we stayed for a few days before leaving to begin our second cruise. We took a tour on a double-decker bus, saw Big Ben, the Tower of London, the Rover Thames, and witnessed the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. Overall, we were a bit sad to leave the UK to continue our travels, but we looked forward to the next few months of travel.
Amsterdam was next on our agenda. We boarded our cruise after strolling around Amsterdam for the morning. We were more than excited to move inland. Our cruise was to go from Amsterdam to Bucharest and last almost a month. It was nice to not have to try to find transportation along the way for that part of the journey. We saw all sorts of things along the rivers as we traveled them. The one thing that stood out to me was always the stunning buildings along the way. From the different building styles to colors to sizes, the building never ceased to astonish me. My favorite stop along the way was Vienna, where Rocky loved Budapest, but we both loved the river cruise across central Europe. Bucharest was where we disembarked before going to our final country in Europe: France.
Rocky found her passion in Paris. I knew she had a keen eye for fashion, but Paris sealed it for her. We were walking along a boulevard one day and happened across a photoshoot. While we didn't speak much French, Rocky suggested that they change a few items around and put together a few that the designer had thrown to the side out of frustration. They begrudgingly followed her changes to make her go away. Little did she know, that was the day that would change her life.
The company ended up looking for her via social media because the photoshoot went viral. Rocky was ecstatic when she saw the company make a post asking for help to find the "American girl with the bold personality" who made the shoot a success. She instantly sent them a message, to which they responded, which led to more hysterics from Rocky. The designer contacted her personally after that. Rocky set up a time to meet with her and from then on, her course was set.
Paris was our last stop in Europe before we went south. South America is full of vibrant cultures. We were cutting it close for being back home in a year, so we, unfortunately, cut our South America tour shorter than we had planned. We managed to visit the beautiful country of Ecuador. There we went to see the beautiful Galapagos Islands. Beautiful was only one of the many adjectives that were running through our minds as we were awestruck at the sights held by the islands. We traveled to Argentina to see the glaciers and the contrasting rainforests. Finally, we went to Uruguay. We took in the sights of Montevideo before spending nearly a week at Termas de Dayman. The natural thermal spas left us feeling rejuvenated after traveling for so long. The last stop we made before returning to SoCal, was Puerto Rico. We spent five days in San Juan, simply relaxing. We did a little sightseeing but mostly we just enjoyed each other's company, knowing that our days of bonding were coming to an end. We grew on our yearlong journey, in ways we never expected. We had hard days, but the good days and the sisterhood we had far surpassed anything we had ever imagined.
There was one thing about the journey we took that I kept to myself. I went stargazing on every continent. While the constellations were not always the ones I grew up with, the feelings they brought me were always the same. No matter where I was on Earth, it always soothed my soul to gaze up at the vast expanse of stars in the sky. It brought me a few moments of pure and utter peace. It always seemed to ground me back into the now, but the best thing that it always brought to me was a memory. One of the sweetest and most cherished moments that I held in the deepest part of my heart.
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