As we all are at the moment limited to travel virtually only, I looked into really old trips of mine. As I am a kid of the 80s, not all trips were recorded with a digital camera. With that in mind, I can only go back a certain time. The first trips as a kid outside Germany were to Switzerland. I recall the Alps and that everything was really clean and expensive. Sadly I do not have digital picture of that. Smaller trips started during my time as a student and afterwards with having my first job and money for travelnig.
2005 – Bulgaria (Sunny Beach)
I can not recall so much of this trip actually. As it was a two-week hotel resort vacation at the sunny beach in Bulgaria. But several things I still remember, which are funny in retrospective. Even that 2005 is not that long ago, it was not yet popular to book everything online. This was also true for this trip, as the hotel was chosen in a catalog in an actual tourist office. Also, special for me was, that to Bulgaria this was my first flight ever. Today I would not do a trip like this again. But I would like to visit Bulgaria once more to see for example the Rila National Park.
2008 – Dubai (Desert Tour)
In my life I traveled to Dubai already a couple of time for work trips. Mainly combined with some days of travel. The first time traveling to Dubai was in 2008. As I did not travel a lot to outside of Europe at this point, I was spontaneous to agreeing to that trip. The trip was packed with the main things to do in Dubai. A city bus tour, visiting the beach of Burj Al Arab, Gold Souk, Spice Soak, a boat tour. The special highlight of the trip been two tours in the desert. One tour been with a 4×4 wheel drive driving over the dunes and the second a sun downer tour to a hotel in the desert. It were a couple of fun days. Dubai is always worth a visit.
2008 – Italy (Beach time and surrounding of Cattolica)
My first visit in Italy was in 2008, due to an invitation of an exchange student from the region. It is interesting – a bit sad too – that I can not recall her name but remember all the great times we had in Germany and Italy. She lived in a student flat with a very good friend of mine, and we organized a couple of German/Italian cooking events. I recall the really nice Italian food she cooked. Back then we said, when she is back in Italy we will all come visit her, and we did. In the summer of 2008 we drove from Stuttgart (Germany) to Cattolica (Italy). Which is a 850 km drive. I recall great small towns we visited, great local Italian restaurants where she showed us her beautiful country. It was a great trip, as trips organized by local are mainly the best way to see a country.
2009 – Gran Ganaria (Desert and Inland Tour)
Another trip I do not have too much memory about, as it was again in a hotel resort. It seems to be a theme here, all the trips that I did not book or organize complete myself, I just can not remember too much about it. As said we are speaking here about my really early days of travel. The two things I remember out of the trip been the dunes of Maspalomas and Valle de Agaete. The dunes have been great for walking/climbing around. In the Valle de Agaete, we did a day tour with a great guide who explained everything from the history to the plants.
2010 – New York, New York
There is a German song in place that goes like this:
“Ich war noch niemals in New York, ich war noch niemals auf Hawaii
Ging nie durch San Francisco in zerriss’nen Jeans
Ich war noch niemals in New York, ich war noch niemals richtig frei
Einmal verrückt sein und aus allen Zwängen flieh’n. ” – Udo Jürgens (1982)
The lyric are saying that I was never in New York, Hawaii and San Francisco. It relates to the fact what we all did not do yet in our life, and we can choose to change that every moment we live. At this time it was the theme of the trip. Just pick what you want to do and do it. Life can not only be a sum of constraints that society is imposing on us.
2010 – History in Rom
As my early travel days are marked by major city trips, it is not a surprise that Rom can be found here. Compared to New York, which I did in the same year, it was a complete contrast. Rom is full of history, culture and amazing Italian food. We were in the city for a long weekend. In a hotel near the Colosseum, which was great to nearly walk to all main attraction of the city. We prebooked a couple of things – as the trip was over a public holiday weekend. We did the Colosseum, Vatican City, The Catacombs and a lot of amazing food and wine.
2011 – Cyprus (The bluest water)
Cyprus was everything but what I was expecting. We also book this trip as a package and it was mainly focusing on beach time and relaxing. The hotel was actually been great, as we had a view directly to the ocean. We stayed on the Greece side of the Island. As the Island is separated between Greece and Turkey. The first fail was that we did not know that on the Island there is left side driving. Originally we wanted to rent a car, but at this time, we never drove on the left side before and decided against it. Which in retrospective is funny, as we did it just three years later in New Zealand for weeks. I guess we just got more experienced over the time. Or more adventure blood is running through is now.
