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Don't expect words of wisdom or earth shattering revelations, just my thoughts and observations about living in Ottawa, being a public servant and trying to live life every day to its fullest

Friday, September 17, 2010

Igor and other holiday related stories: Next week was vacation week - seven days in Bermuda, exploring and scuba-diving, hanging out with an old school friend and generally decompressing. My trip has been delayed a week because of my new best-friend Igor (currently a category 3 hurricane due to directly hit Bermuda on Sunday evening / Monday morning - shortly before I was due to land).

It got me to thinking about vacations, trips and adventures in general. My luck is great and I often take things for granted, but there is often that one moment where you wonder if it is going to work out ... Russia and the Beslan tragedy, missing my flight to Hong Kong by 12 hours, the car breaking down in Jordan. I sometimes joke that "something always goes wrong" on my attempts to disconnect and that it is better to get it out of the way while I am safe and sound at home, instead of waiting for it. But these set-backs also reminds me how lucky I am.

A short history of my travel shenanigans:
My sister and I were to meet in Moscow, we had planned the trip for months to see the Hermitage, Red Square. A few short weeks before we were to meet at a random spot somewhere in the suburbs, a school in Beslan was stormed and held. I don't need to go into what followed in Beslan, the tragedy is well documented, but between my sister (who was in Italy) and I, there was an emotional conversation where we tried to figure out what to do. We went ... Russia was in mourning and the Kremlin was in lock down, but we saw the city and had many fine adventures. Apart from an incident that involved the either drinking water or a buffet the first night, the trip was fantastic. 

My solo two week trip to Hong Kong and Malaysia in 2008 was about 12 hours shorter than planned due to a ticket mishap that resulted in me missing a plane (I got the last ticket on the next flight for a mere $100 "surcharge"). It is probably a good thing that this was the only mishap since this trip was very badly planned - and certain legs were very much ad-hoc; like being on an island off Malaysia with very little plans on how to leave, or not being sure where I was staying for my 18hours in Singapore.

In Jordan, my sister and I were stranded on the side of the of a road for three hours while buses and people, and even a police officer, stopped to see what was going on - two women just sitting by the side of an exit ramp. It was hot, we were in the middle of no where and it took the car-rental agency several hours to get there and then try and pin the ceased engine on us (we had picked up the car earlier that morning). We ended up with this very dirty car which was what the car-company had driven up to meet us in. We left the car-people on the side of the road waiting with the clean but non-functioning car. The new car was spacious and had far more power than the original vehicle - but disinfectant needed to be used every time you touched any part of the car. In fact, we has enough space to pick-up "hitch-hikers" in Petra and take them to Wadi-Rum! Sure, Jordan had a few other sketchy moments (walking into the desert in the middle of the night with a bedouin casanova ... ???) but all in all, it was really a trip of a lifetime.

There were also moments as a child, traveling with my parents; all our passports and money being stolen in Amsterdam the day before we were to fly to Canada, dad slipping on a canal boat outside Coventry and needing stitches ... and  many of my trips have had no hick-cups; a week in Honduras scuba-diving (unless you call "picking up" Bill and Brian as not a hick-up), three days in Cuba for my 31st birthday, six weeks in Hong Kong and New Zeland driving around and camping.

I suppose the point is that I get to travel, I am seeing the world, I get to see incredible places, meeting interesting people, scuba-dive, snowboard, spend time with my sister. I am very lucky. I have some time and resources which I can put towards my adventures. I have a sibling and friends with whom I can travel with, and the occasional set-back is only going to strengthen my resolve to make the most of what I have as long as I can. It also reminds me that I am alive and getting out of my house and my "normal" life involves pushing my comfort zone, and living. I am living.

So - I will be at work next week but in ten days, unless they close the airport in Bermuda again, I will be scuba diving and exploring a new place. Look out Igor, you might have won this round, but in the end I prevail, because I am still going to Bermuda, and the weather will be perfect. And this time next week, you will just be an inconvenient memory.

1 comment:

  1. got your message re my blog. Just stopped by to say hello,Malc

    ReplyDelete