My travels from this year

When I was younger my parents had somewhat frequently traveled for work, my brother and I got to experience that as well during breaks from school. It occurred less and less after a few years, before the COVID-19 outbreak my father, my brother, and I went to Los Angeles for winter break to go to Universal Studios. It was a very eventful trip since it was right before New Year’s Eve and I had never been there until then, a few months later the pandemic began. I hadn’t traveled since up until spring 2024 which was a photography class trip.

The spring trip was originally supposed to take place in Ireland, I had some second thoughts about going on the trip it was mostly due to the cost of the trip and the fact that I would be independent from my parents while visiting opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean 7 months before the trip. The trip was then changed to Switzerland, Austria, and Germany instead of Ireland which improved the trip in terms of prices and at this point I had already realized it was too late to back out of the trip. I thought the only choice I had was to make the best of it. In hindsight I realize that this was privileged perception of the situation, due to the fact that most people don’t experience traveling. I was a little anxious about the trip, because I hadn’t been on a plane for what I perceived to be a long time and for the most part thought the plane would crash, but it wasn’t horrible I was shocked by the amount of turbulence the plane experienced, I didn’t remember experiencing those when I was a child. I explored a lot of new things on the trip such as sharing a room with someone I didn’t know and I formed a special bond with the people on that trip. I tried food that I’ve never had like a quiche and cheese fondue. I went to different places that I’ve always heard of but never saw in real time , such as the top of the alps, Neuschwanstein Castle, and the Dachau concentration camp. Although some of the places had a somber history I thought It was really important to view its significance. I also got the experience of misplacing my personal belongings and figuring out how to get them back which was not as fun. It was definitely one of the best experiences of my life, I’m grateful to have the privilege to have explored another part of the world, and I believe I grew from that experience.

The other place I traveled to was not as far as the spring break trip, but it was also a very interesting experience for me. This trip was with my family and we visited Chicago, Illinois. This trip was a few days after my high school graduation and it was very exciting for me to travel for the second time in a span of a few months. I had heard a lot of things about Chicago that I wanted to see myself, mainly I wanted to see the bean and try a Chicago deep dish. The Chicago deep dish was the first thing I ate since we landed at lunchtime, 2 slices kept me full until the next morning. We visited the bean right after the deep dish, sadly was locked up and we could only look at it from a distance. That was followed up by a view of a park concert which I had never seen in person before. The next day we walked to the shore near Lake Michigan we went back to our hotel where I saw one of my favorite movies Ferris Bueller’s day off on tv while watching the art museum scene I realized that the film’s setting was Chicago, there fore I could physically go to the museum, naturally I dragged my family there. I can’t describe the feeling of seeing all my favorite art pieces in person it was just pure euphoria. Unfortunately we went there late in the day and I spent so much time marveling at the most visible areas of the art institution that I didn’t take into consideration how big the exhibition were, therefore I didn’t get to see the whole museum. But I made a promise to myself to visit the museum once more to see the whole museum, and I hope to visit other museums. I feel like I got more from that trip than I expected and I love looking back at the emotions that rushed through me while I was trying to consume every piece of art around me. I truly hope I never forget the experiences I got from my travels.