"You'll Always Have Paris"
“You’re going away for FIVE WEEKS!? Like FIVE. ENTIRE. WEEKS???” That was the reaction from my office manager when I told her about the summer holiday I planned as a 30th birthday present to myself. The longest vacay of my working career was bound to raise some eyebrows, but I didn’t mind. After all there were places to go, people to see and of course, lots of epic IG pictures to take ;)
My initial plan was to spend most of the time in Paris, in a language school learning French. It was all sketched out in my mind: I would rent a beautiful apartment in the best arrondissement and wake up every morning to the sounds of French music playing on an old school vinyl record player. A man can dream, right? Once I got to Paris though, something hit me, and I thought to myself: you’ve done Paris before, and "you’ll always have Paris." Why not go out and explore, step out of your comfort zone and see what the rest of Europe has to offer?
Deciding what to do became a lot easier when a friend called me up saying he had just arrived in Mykonos and had rented a villa for the week. It didn’t take much arm twisting for me to book a flight and join in on the fun. For the next three and a half weeks, I bounced around between Mykonos, Santorini, Athens, Istanbul, Milan, Monaco, Cannes, Nice and London, before making the journey back to The Bahamas.
It was a trip for the ages. I partied with royalty, gambled for the first time, ate at both the fanciest restaurant ever AND McDonald’s on the same day, visited the largest rose garden in Europe, took in concerts and took more pictures than I can remember. And that was just in Monaco.
Standing in front of the iconic Casino de Monte-Carlo
It's impossible to distill five weeks of madness and adventure into a single blog post. So I won't even try. For now, here are my 3 biggest takeaways from the trip:
1) TRAVELING MAKES US BETTER.
The theory is simple: we are better people when we travel. Something special happens when we leave the familiarity of our home environment and venture into a new place. There’s a freeing that removes all the pressure, baggage, stress and monotony of our daily lives. It all melts away and what’s left is the most authentic and beautiful versions of ourselves.
2) IT’S OKAY TO WING IT SOMETIMES.
This applies to travel and to life in general. Istanbul was the most random place I visited. I went there on a complete whim – like, booked-a-flight-the-night-before-going-cause-a-stranger-on-Instagram-recommended-it kinda whim – and it ended up being the highlight of my entire trip. I fell madly in love with the people, their amazing culture and warmth. Everyone I met had such a passion for life, it was mesmerizing. If I had ‘stuck to the script’ or played in safe in more familiar territory, I would’ve missed it. Pretty sure there's a life lesson in there that we can all learn from.
All smiles in front of the famous Bosphorus Strait which separates Europe and Asia in Istanbul.
3) THE RIGHT TIME IS ALWAYS NOW.
If you get the itch. Go. Don’t wait for friends. Don’t wait for the perfect moment. It’s always the right time to travel, explore, see more of the world and learn more about yourself. If you can afford it, GO!!
Stay tuned to see what else I'll be sharing about my trip to Europe in the coming weeks and months. I’m not in a rush to unpack it all. Truth be told, it feels like a part of me is still there.
Wishing you love and light.
xx
Ryan
