Bremen, Germany

     

    

If there's one thing I've learned throughout our travels (though I have learned a lot!), it's that: it's all about the people.  Whether it's someone you breifly come in contact with, or someone who ends up a life long friend, people shape our travel experiences more than we realize.  After coming to realize this, I've tried to become more intentional about engaging with people during our travels.  Although I wouldn't say I'm shy, I am definitely not as outgoing as I'd sometimes like to be.  At times, it can be easy to go somewhere, take it all in, and leave before even engaging with the human beings that actually live there!  My goal of travelling is not to have my life be like one super long vacation (though I can't deny that it's pretty good!), my goal of travelling is to learn, to engage in other people, and to hopefully give that back to the people I engage with.  If it wasn't for the people I've met throughout our travels, we wouldn't have made this trip to Bremen.

Norway Part 2: Preikestolen, Odda and Oslo

First, an update on my well being.  (If you haven't read about what happened during the first major hike of our Norway trip, you can do so here).  I'm alive!  AND well!!  Pretty thankful about that.  And not only that, I am thankful that we didn't have to cut our trip short.  We did cut out a major hike that we had planned, and slowed down our pace immensely, but I'd like to say we still conquered Norway.  Surprisingly, just hours after the hike, I was feeling back to my normal self and feeling quite positive about things.  If there's one thing I didn't want to do, it was to ruin the rest of our trip because someone (...me) had to pass out on the top of a mountain (there's no way that sounds casual, yet I tried my best to pass it off like that).  That's not to say that I was completely back to normal.  And I think it's part of who I am to attempt to shake things off only to have them explode my emotions a few days later.  Yes, that did happen.  I found myself in tears a few days after, scared that I would never get feeling back in my fingers, and worried that something like this would happen again.  I'm not going to lie, though we had a plan of sticking to our dried food diet (mostly to save money), we ended up buying and cooking an entire bag of pasta only to devour ALL of it basically without breathing (or talking).  

Norway Part 1: A nightmare on Kjerag Mountain

                                 

Since returning from our Norway trip a week and a half ago, I've been asked many times, "how was it?!"  Or, "how awesome was your Norway adventure?".  Surrprisingly, this has been a tough question for me to respond to.  Normally, after returning to England from one of our many Europe adventures this year, I've come back bursting at the seams with stories of fun and adventure.  I usually head back to work with a spring in my step and (sometimes) even a bit more tanned!  Well guys, this is the first time I can honestly say my travel experience was, well, not so good.  Don't get me wrong, Norway is an unbelievably beautiful country.  Sometimes though, certain travel experiences can challenge us in ways that we weren't expecting.