Another season’s passed. Last summer I had a blast in Whistler, but I also saw so many cool photos from colleagues plastered over my Facebook, that I decided to get back into tour leading this summer. And it’s been an insane summer. It started off so relaxed. Everything went smoothly and I could enjoy every minute of it.
Then I got into a period where I just couldn’t win. Everything seemed to go wrong and I had no clue how to change it. It got so bad that I kept dreaming about things going wrong. One morning I woke up with a jolt, my heart beating fast, and I grabbed my phone. I thought I had slept through my alarm and had missed the bus to the next place. I was just starting to wonder why nobody had woken me up when I looked at my phone and realised we weren’t leaving until the next day.
Luckily that period also passed and I could go back to enjoying smooth trips without too many hassles. I’ve done a bunch of new things and I’m glad I found the time and energy to visit new places or try new activities. I’m tired and I know it’s time for the season to end, and yet I’m sad. Looking at all my photos I see so many happy moments, even during the trip from hell where everything went wrong.
This photo was taken on top of St. Stephens cathedral in Budapest. I’d come through Budapest many times, but never took the time to climb up to the top. I’ve seen many high points; the Belfry in Bruges, St. Stephens in Budapest, the Duomo of Milan, the Dom in Berlin, the TV-tower of Berlin, the walls of Dubrovnik and the mountain tops of Cinque Terre and Interlaken.
I managed to see new places and luckily I had some time to explore new regions before doing a trip there. This season brought me to Southern Croatia, Galicia in Spain and new places in Transylvania in Romania. In the photo you see Dubrovnik’s Lokrum island. I just loved wandering around and jumping into the perfect blue water.
This season definitely threw some challenges my way. A lot of them had to do with trains. Here we are in Bohumin, a place where we shouldn’t have stopped and should have been sleeping as the train raced through the station. No such luck. We took the night train on the day there was a massive storm. We woke up in the Czech Republic instead of in Poland. Our train was standing still and nobody could tell us what was going on. Eventually we got to do some food shopping in this town and stood still for hours. We arrived in Poland at 4PM, 8,5 hours late.
I had a lot of great people on my tours and this is what can make or break a tour. Even if everything goes wrong, it is bearable as long as everyone stays positive and keeps having a good time. If there is one thing I’ve learned in my travels, it is that nothing goes according to plan and plans keep changing. The perfect traveller embraces whatever comes their way and sees an opportunity or an adventure in everything. Most of my travellers embraced the bizarre, took it all in with a smile and can now bring home memories they’ll never forget. It was amazing to meet so many cool people this season.
My travels have not only taken me to cities, but also to the beautiful nature we have in Europe. We don’t have the vast landscapes of bigger countries like Australia or the USA, but we have so many beautiful parks and a countryside filled with cute little towns. For a week I’ve walked through the North of Spain, from small town to smaller town. It makes you see the region in a completely different way. I’ve also hiked up new parts of the Cinque Terre hiking trail and took some new walks around Interlaken.
Overall, I’ve had an amazing season. We’ve just finished the season in style with a post season party weekend in Bucharest. I can’t believe how lucky I am to have an amazing bunch of colleagues. To talk to them about our lives is invaluable. It was so good to have fun and relax. Now it’s time to switch to winter mode, but I can’t wait to see my friends again in April!