Travel Made Joyful

By Sara C., guest blogger and Travel Made Joyful client

Like an exquisite meal, a travel adventure can be enhanced or hindered by the person(s) with whom you spend it. With the right companion, you can thoroughly savor your dishes together, explore new flavors while examining worldviews, learn from each other’s knowledge and foodie viewpoints, and excitedly plan for the next meal. I recently had the opportunity to enjoy a travel adventure with a friend and confirmed that both the right company and mindset can make a trip and all its meals even more unforgettable.

When I was invited to a dear friend’s destination wedding near Bordeaux, France, I was sure of two things: I needed to make the most of every minute of this trip to Europe, and I needed to choose my travel partner wisely. I was excited and relieved that my friend Laura accepted my invitation to be my wedding “plus one” and travel partner. As we began trying to plan the trip, we quickly realized we wanted to fit a somewhat unreasonable amount of country-hopping and sightseeing into 15 days (thank you, Katie, for making this happen!) and that if we were to going to take the risks of squeezing it all in, we needed to be ready to manage potential stress together (while preserving our friendship).

Before we left, Laura and I had several conversations about our expectations of each other during the trip and discussed the sort of open, honest communication without judgement we’d need to have. We talked through our hopes and worries related to traveling, and how we’d manage the stress of any challenges or complications that might try to tarnish our trip. Establishing this foundation of understanding prior to departure turned out to be helpful and made for smooth navigation when we ran into problems. We were ready to approach the experience and each other with curiosity and patience.

We started the trip in Belgium, visiting the fairytale cities of Ghent and Bruges. Next, we headed to France where we visited several small towns near Bordeaux, and then made our way up to Paris by train. From Paris, we flew to Florence to explore the City of Flowers and from there, took trains to the coast to visit Cinque Terre. Italy was our favorite: we loved the incredible food and wine, the ease of the Italian language as we are both Spanish speakers, the Florentine art and history, and the breathtaking views from the cliffs of the Cinque Terre trail.

Being in constant movement for 15 days far from home was at times exhilarating, other times tiring, but every moment of it was enriched by the company of my travel partner. We quickly learned to lean on each other’s strengths (definitely don’t trust me with Google Maps, but Laura can get you to where you want to go). We learned that when put in stressful situations, such as when each one of our trains were canceled from Cinque Terre back to Florence for our flight home, we can help each other stay calm and find solutions. We learned to make the most of the parts of our trip that made us nervous, like using public transit and changing trains with only minutes in between, and while these weren’t necessarily highlights, we were able to see them as important parts of the experience that were empowering and built confidence to do it all again in the future.

We were repeatedly reminded that the weather is always full of surprises, but downpours in Paris and flooding in Florence are much more fun in good company. I returned from Europe with a renewed love of Belgian chocolate, French cheese and croissants, and Italian wine, and more significantly, a deeper appreciation of my travel partner.