If you met me today, you might take me for a typical minivan-driving Berkeley mom. et je suis. but I’m also full of stories. and dreams. Let me start with one of each from ten years ago.
The first date with my future-husband, Alec, was a long one. four hours in, we were exchanging personal travel stories like trading cards over milkshakes. Alec had been to Kenya and me to Turkey; he had been to Honduras and me to Thailand; he had been to Australia and me to the Czech Republic. We both had been to parts of Western Europe. We unknowingly laid the foundation for our own big journey together.
A year after our first date, I bought a big map. Alec and I circled places on it that we wanted to go. That same map hangs above my oldest son’s homework desk and some of the markings are still visible. once the circles started to obscure the countries with too many highlights to check out in a year, I made a plan. I took charge and whittled our dream trip down to a manageable six-month round-the-world plane ticket with eight major stopovers plus trains, buses, boats, and automobiles to get us the rest of the way.
In hindsight, I can’t think of it any other way, but the trip planning preceded any mention of a wedding. and then we got engaged, so decided to turn the adventure-trip into a honeymoon, making a handshake agreement to also leave the country every year of our marriage.
In preparation, we sold most of our valuables and put the rest into two storage pods. I went on a formal leave of absence but had no intention of returning to my job. We vacated our apartment the day after our wedding as we polished off the cake.
Vacation Heather is the best version of me. For many reasons as soon as I approach the airplane I gate-check my controlling nature and just go with it. I’ve learned so many wonderful things on trips. and most of them were about myself.
I didn’t want to forget a single detail of our epic monstermoon. once the trip started, I recorded every restaurant, hostel, and activity along with all our expenses in a paper notebook.
Together, we had so many big and small adventures. We learned how to live out of one wallet from the start; that was a big shift in our thinking that has served us well since then. Similarly, we learned how grumpy I get after a day of hiking without enough snacks.
We kicked off our trip in the United Kingdom. Alec and I explored museums, pubs, and castles when we weren’t visiting with dear friends. one of my favorite spots in London is the transit museum where I climbed all over old buses and trains and learned bits of trivia I love to share.
To stretch our dollars as far as they’d go, we stayed in youth hostels most nights; to make it more “honeymoony”, we pampered ourselves at nicer hotels and restaurants every so often. I made up the rule that we should stay somewhere with a nice shower before every long flight. You’re welcome, world.
We flew to Germany as a launch point for other parts of central and Eastern Europe. We discovered the perfect drinking chocolate in the Czech Republic; jumped off a bridge into a river holding hands in Slovenia; swam in a Budapest bath complex so lovely it could pass for a cathedral; discovered a common love of board games; and ate pizza more than a dozen times. We didn’t know it then but we picked up our most significant souvenir in Croatia, a group of tiny cells that taught us that the Facts of Life are universal, unchanged by geography. I should have suspected something was off when Alec won in Scrabble for the first time ever.
My spouse still takes his bike rides rain or shine but I prefer to wait for optimal conditions. In Slovenia, we borrowed a pair of bikes and spent an hour cycling in the pouring rain along a highway with me in a blown-out poncho that poofed out like a sail. We returned to our hostel to tasty goulash and a belly-dancing show before catching our night-train to Munich on our way to Africa. I love a day like that; it’s such a potluck of random experiences.
Arriving in Cape town was a substantial shock: we had flown from summer to winter, town to city, and Europe to Africa.
After a few days in the big city, we joined a 10-day safari tour to take us through Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. The young leaders provided a big truck, meals, tents, and sleeping mats for eleven of us. In exchange, we did dishes and other odd chores. during these days, I began to feel oddly terrible.
Our safari truck drove on gravel roads with no other automobiles for hours in any direction. The towns we passed were lucky to have a dusty can of tripe on the shelves, certainly not a pregnancy test like I was hoping to find. By the time I summoned up the nerve to ask our young guides where I might find one, we were one day away from a real city with pharmacies and physicians.
The day we saw the positive pink lines on the pregnancy test ”“ and visited a local doctor to double-check ”“ we saw a wild zebra on the roAD et un troupeau de flamants sauvages. Les zèbres solitaires sont très rares, nous l’avons donc pris comme un bon présage.
Notre vérification dans le parc national d’Etosha était parfait: nous nous sommes réveillés avant un glorieux lever de soleil pour nos premiers lecteurs de matchs; Nous avons vu tellement d’oiseaux, de girafes, de lions, de zèbres le long de notre route vers le déjeuner; Après avoir déjeuné, nous nous sommes rendus au trou d’eau voisin et avons vu littéralement soixante (60) éléphants avec des bébés éclaboussant et buvant. C’était exceptionnel et difficile à partir. Nous avons dormi dans des tentes au rugissement des lions, trop épuisés pour voir s’ils étaient à proximité.
Dans d’autres nouvelles, après avoir divulgué ma grossesse au personnel, nous avons été sommairement lancés de notre voyage de safari et déposés dans un joint de hamburger Wimpy pour nous débrouiller pour nous-mêmes. Si je devais être mordu par un moustique infecté ou prendre le médicament contre le paludisme, ce serait très mauvais pour le fœtus. Alec et moi avons accepté de quitter la tournée et de le faire. En travaillant en équipe, nous avons très bien compris. Plus de bonnes pratiques pour la vraie vie!
Les autres points forts africains incluent le séjour dans une station de luxe en cadeau de mon meilleur ami; Randonnée à travers les Drakensberg (montagnes de dragon) pour caverner les sites de peinture il y a environ mille ans; Dormir dans un rondeval privé sans porte de salle de bain; et Alec mangeant des antélopes grandes et petites d’Impala et Springbok à Kudu et Oryx. Sans aucun doute, notre insistance à ce que nos enfants prennent une «morsure de remerciement» de tout ce que nous préparons à l’origine de ces tests de goût de gibier sauvage.
Lorsque le moment est venu de passer de l’Afrique en Asie, nous avons soigneusement emballé les seules preuves que nous avions de notre minuscule clandestinité, l’image échographique d’un médecin de Johannesburg.
Le voyage ne s’est pas terminé, mais il a pris un chemin inattendu.
Leçons apprises de mon Monsteron?
Personne ne se sent désolé pour que vous preniez une lune de miel de trois mois
Il est important d’obtenir une heure pour vous-même tous les jours, même si vous êtes avec votre personne préférée dans le monde
Élever une famille est un autre type d’aventure épique
Le chocolat chaud est toujours une bonne idée, obtenez les bonnes choses
Votre boîte de réception ne sera jamais vide et il n’y a pas de temps parfait
Il vaut presque toujours mieux garder un emploi jusqu’à ce que vous en ayez un nouveau
Nous nous promettons mutuellement de quitter le pays chaque année de notre mariage. Trois enfants plus tard et nous amortissons toujours notre lune de miel avec seulement quelques dépôts dans cette banque. J’espère qu’un jour nous reviendrons sur la bonne voie.
[Photos de Heather et Alec Flett et quelques passants aléatoires par]