while my friends and i were on the Turkey trip, we decided it would be fun if we could go on a big trip like that every other year. every year would be ideal, but the reality is you do need to save up money and vacation days.

the next time we all got together (we live in different states) we figured out the best time for all of us to travel, and determined our top three choices were South Africa, New Zealand and Thailand. one of us had been to New Zealand before and that was the most expensive, so we ruled that one out. Thailand, although really interesting just didn’t have the same appeal as South Africa, so we decided that would be our next adventure. one of had been to parts of South Africa before, but we thought that would be ok, as it wasn’t an extensive trip going where we wanted to on this trip.

i love a good planning session, so i volunteered to put a trip together. i didn’t do it all on my own, for the first time i used a travel agency. i found a terrific place online called Travel Butlers, and worked with a wonderful woman named Susan. i told her the sites of interest we’d like to see, the budget we had in mind and the time frame we had to work with. after a couple of rounds of revisions, we had an itinerary. easy as 1-2-3.

i shared it with the rest of the team and it all looked promising. i was using miles for the airline portion of the trip, and since i was traveling from a different state i went ahead and booked my airfare, just to be safe. it then turned out that two of the four couldn’t go on the trip, sadness struck, but we, the other two, decided to go ahead with the vacation. it wasn’t the same without them, but it was a great trip. with the exception of the last hotel, the last night of the trip, i’d go on the exact same trip all over again.

we flew into Cape Town and stayed there for three nights, and got acclimated. two night

s would have been enough for us, but it all worked out fine. the rental car was brought to us the day after we arrived, which was a nice service. this was the first time i had driven on the opposite side of the road, very exciting. i’m happy to report the car didn’t incur any damage, all mirrors and hubcaps remained intact. while in Cape Town we saw Table Mountain and we went for a shark cage dive. not quite Jaws, but it felt that way. we drove to Cape Point, and went to Boulders to see the penguins (my second penguin experience).

then started the drive along the Garden Route. we stayed in Franschhoek and checked out a few wineries, and then headed to Wilderness and saw the Cango Caves in Little Karoo. next stop was in Knysna at the Mitchell Brewery (if there is a local brewery a stop must be made), and we spent the night next in Plettenberg Bay. Monkey Land, Birds of Eden and Tsitsikamma National Park. one night near the Addo Elephant Park, and then off to safari.

we stayed at the Pumba Reserve, and it was fantastic. we could see, and hear, hippos from our deck, and occasionaly saw lions just wandering down the path by the guest rooms. the food was wonderful, the staff amazing, Brad our safari guide was the best. there were two drives a

day, once in the morning and once in the evening. you were in a vehicle with 2-6 people depending on the day and time. we saw, elephants, giraffes, lions, lion cubs, cheetah, zebras, white rhino and a lot of kudu and other elk like animals. it was truly an amazing experience to see those animals in their natural habitat and not a man-made cement environment with one grassy hill.

that was the last part of the trip, and i was sad to see it end. after the safari we spent one last night in Port Elizabeth (total let down after the safari), then got on a flight to Johannesburg and headed our separate ways back to the states. Johannesburg has the best gift shops i have ever seen btw. again, i’d do this same trip all over again, it was just a great time spent with a great friend.

that trip to London and France was the first of many trips i have made with my friends.

the second trip was to Turkey. my friends have a colleague originally from Turkey, and he and his family go every summer for a visit. he mentioned it would be fun if my friends went to Turkey while they were there, and he could show them around. enough said, a group was formed, and off to Istanbul we went.

we started and ended the trip in Istanbul, and we went to Cappadocia and Bodrum as well. We took a tour of Ephesus, went on a long hike and saw many old churches and homes built into hillsides. fairy chimneys, a hot air balloon ride, and a 3-night trip on the Aegean Sea. a very long bus ride, a lot of bartering, amazing tile work, the Aya Sophia, a Turkish bath and the Grand Bazaar. lazy mornings starting with strong coffee, cheese, cucumbers and tomatoes. afternoons spent enjoying Efes Pilsen with my friends.

this was a wonderful trip, and far too short, i think i could have easily stayed a month. i’m very thankful that i was extended the opportunity to go on this trip, and that we had a local with us to show us the world where he grew up. Istanbul, very different than the Bay Area.

everyone was having a great time and enjoying being in London. Westminster Abbey, London Tower, Buckingham Palace and just wandering through the streets seeing what there was to see. in addition to my quick jaunt to France, i also went to Wales. a colleague of mine from work lives there, so i took the opportunity to visit.

lots of rolling hills, sheep and castles. oh, and some very long words with a lot of vowels. araf. not a long word, but one of the few i remember. i had a great visit and got to see my friends studio in addition to the countryside. i was introduced to Ali G (not literally) and McVitties Digestives, it really doesn’t get much better than that. i was only there for one evening, and then headed back to London the next day.

since we were celebrating a 30th birthday in addition to New Year’s Eve, we decided to go big and went to dinner at Mr. Chows. what a party that was, they really did it up and we did it up on top of that, and it was an evening to remember.

a good time, a good trip, had by all.

after my cruise there was a lull for a couple of years before i went on another international trip. but the next one was a lot of fun…….

a friend of mine said, “hey a group of us are going to London for a 30th birthday celebration do you want to come with?” there opportunity was, knocking on my door again. hell yes i want to go. there were five of us traveling together, and we rented a flat for the week. we were going to be there for New Year’s as that is when the actual birthday was and that was the reason for the trip. if your birthday falls on any holiday you tend to get overlooked a bit, so a 30th birthday blow-out in London was one way to make the event special.

little did i realize that two other friends were also going on the trip with us, but it was a surprise for me, so i didn’t know they were coming until they knocked on the flat door. crazy! even crazier was that they were only in London for an hour before they had to be at the train station to take the Chunnel to France. “we’ll buy you a ticket and you can come with if you want”….ok, really? who is going to pass up a trip to France, so off i went goodbye London, hello Paris.

we were in Paris for less than 48 hours…….we had our trusty Michelin guide and went on the full walking tour and saw famous peoples homes (or at least the doorways), Montmartre, Lapin Agile, the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame to name a few. we stayed at a funny little hotel Notre Dame something in a room that was barely big enough for a bed and night stand and maybe you could get the bathroom door all the way open if you were standing in the right spot (on the bed). the wall paper matched the bed cover, which matched the curtains…..something to be said for over coordination. we also popped into to a few cafe’s, one of which was the Cluny.

ah the Cluny…… new friends were made and a lot of beer was consumed. my two friends were there earlier in the evening, while i was resting at the hotel. they showed up at about midnight and said they were at this great place and i should go. well alrighty then, let me put on some clothes and let’s go. so off we went to start the night, again. we hung out there for awhile, then moved off to a jazz club, and then my friends left, but i remained with some new friends. i spoke no French, they spoke no English, so we settle on communication via a very poor version of Spanish. we must have been entertaining to say the least.

post jazz club at about 4 AM i get the idea i really want to visit Jim Morrison’s grave site. i REALLY need to see it while i’m there. i’m not even that big of a Door’s fan, so it’s amazing how one little mention of something can become the biggest thing ever after a multitude of alcoholic beverages. the cemetery didn’t open till 6 AM, so we killed time at a cafe and then at the hospital. no, no one was injured, one of the people i was with worked there, and though it would be nice to give me a tour of where they worked. they had very clean bathrooms.

off to Pere Lachaise. i received my map of the cemetery and we made our way through. i gave my best to Jim and Oscar Wilde as well, and then decided it was time to make my way back to the hotel as we had to leave that afternoon to go back to London……..

phone box photo courtesy of venere.com
Jim Morrison grave photo courtesy of rankopedia.com

is what my friend AP asked me one day while we were at a basketball game. he was a frequent guest with Princess Cruises and received a 2-for-1 coupon for a South American cruise. he said that he’d pay for the cruise for myself and our friend ST, and we just had to pay for the airfare and excursions.

having never been to South America or on a cruise before I jumped at the chance. ST and i used to work together, but she had moved to Maryland the year before the cruise, so getting to vacation with her for 10 days was a bonus.

the trip started in Montevideo, Uruguay and ended in Santiago, Chile. we cruised along side Argentina, around Cape Horn then back up the other side. we stopped off in Port Stanley – The Falkland Islands, Ushuaia – the end of the world, Puerto Montt and Punta Arenas. those aren’t in order of visit, just in order of how i remembered them. there may have been other spots too, but those few stand out.

the cruise was fun, although i was probably one of five people under the age of 30. needless to say the bar at the “disco” was always empty. i don’t think i’m what you call a cruise person, as the multiple days at sea wore on my nerves. i did become quite the Scrabble player though. it was pretty terrific having everything you could possibly want in walking distance as well……the gym, food, spa, movies, a casino, a library, a swimming pool. we made this trip in December though, so it wasn’t really swim weather. i didn’t need a parka, but shorts and t-shirts were not part of the wardrobe.

i’m trying to recall what stood out on that trip, and there are a couple of things….i was trying to buy a sweater for my Mom in a local shop, and they were having issues with the cash register and i almost missed my tour bus. the people on the bus were not pleased with my lack of respect for time and i immediately had 10 new sets of grandparents watching out for me the rest of the day. penguins in Punta Arenas – the first of many trips that involve penguins, a life size chess board and calling my Mom from a pay phone at “the end of the world”. oh, and at the very beginning of the trip we had a half day tour of Montevideo and at a museum one of the guides asked me if i’d like a job there. huh, wonder what would have happened if i had said, “yes, i’ll see you after the cruise”.

i’m really thankful that AP gave us that vacation opportunity, as that was the last trip i took with ST before she passed away. how do the sayings go, seize the day, seize the moment, don’t let opportunities pass you by…..however they go, you get the point.

photo courtesy of Tours in Putna Arenas – www.turismopaliaike.com/puntaarenas-eng.htm

that’s what my first trip to Europe was, 5 countries in 10 days. it was just after high school, and there were a group of 10-15 kids and 2 adult chaperone’s, in this case a teacher and one of his friends. looking back i have to wonder how that teacher thought chaperoning this trip would be a good idea.

we were one of three schools that travelled together on this particular adventure. the other schools were from Georgia and Virginia. we were the crazy California kids.

we saw London, Scotland, Amsterdam, Germany and Belgium…….as you might imagine that trip is now a blur. a few memories stand out though, including, but not limited to: falling down a very narrow flight of stairs in the Scotland hotel trying to get to the shower first in the morning (not first=no hot water), sitting (getting altitude sickness) in the very last row of a very steep & old theater seeing a Shakespeare play, landing in a pile of dog poo while playing flag football, an extremely long ferry ride-but there was a disco aboard, a scary youth hostel with crazy (crazier than us) kids next door, space muffins at the UFO cafe, Belgian waffles and being so excited about staying in a real hotel with feather comforters, that i slept through the Cologne, Germany visit.

the really sad thing is that i don’t have any photos from that trip. i can’t recall if i just didn’t bring a camera or if i lost the album. i only have one photo in my scrapbook, and that is of the group of us at SFO getting ready to leave. photo not included to protect the not so innocent.

photo courtesy of brusselspictures.com