Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Guest post by Lily: My Eurotrip experience

Here's a little post by my dear Lily Chen about her experience of traveling to Europe and Slovenia alone and visiting me. The embedded video is actually a slideshow of some Slovenian spots we visited (it contains music as well), I really recommend you to see it. Lily will reply all your comments.

A month ago I went to Europe to visit my boyfriend and I must say it was an amazing and wonderful trip, even beyond my expectations. I didn't go to Europe before, so for me, when my boyfriend described the food, buildings or things related to Europe, it was hard for me to imagine. Although I saw many images from all kinds of resources like travel books, online photos, even some TV shows which introduced how fascinating it was to travel to Europe, for me they were just plain images, I don't have any feelings to connect with them. And I also missed my boyfriend a lot, after he left Taiwan, because he had to return to his country. So I decide to visit him during summer time, to reward myself with a Eurotrip and to visit my dearest man.

I flew with KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) and I have to say that the ticket price was quite reasonable during summer and the service they provided was also good. They had a whole variety of in-flight entertainment (with the latest movies) and the food and drinks they offered tasted really good as well. The flight was quite long for me (all together around 20 hrs), but at least I felt good and had nothing to worry about. But the biggest change for me was the fact that it was my first time to travel so far and fly by myself. For the first time I only had myself to rely on. Before my flight, I really had fears about that. I didn't have full confidence in my English, but it turned out that the journey was quite smooth. Even when I had to communicate with other Westerners, they still could understand my English and gave me what I asked for (or ordered).

Another thing I thought prior to the trip was the food. I thought I may miss our food during the trip, but the truth is, the food I tried in Europe was so yummy for me, I enjoyed it a lot and didn't miss the Taiwanese food at all. The only thing I did miss was our tea (I'm used to drink tea everyday), but they had good quality fruit teas and all kinds of milk products, so I still can enjoy drinks there. And my boyfriend's mother is a great cook, she prepared several traditional Slovenian dishes for me and they all tasted quite yummy, I couldn't stop eating and always finished all my portions. I didn't know I could love to eat Western foods so much, so the experience made me know myself more.

Another thing I noticed was how old Europe is. The modern Taiwan only has around 300 years of history, so when I saw the hundred, even thousand years old buildings there, I was stunned and speechless. Those buildings indeed amazed me and humbled me. I especially liked the details of the historical buildings, those adornments were so vivid and delicate. I was amazed that from so many years ago, Europeans were already able to make things look so beautiful and dainty without any convenient modern tools, all arts were totally hand-made, which is really incredible.

In conclusion, this Europe trip meant a lot to me, not only did it broaden my view of this part of the world, it also gave me the precious experience to know how Europeans live and I got to know myself a little better. I feel so appreciated to have the chance and time to go there for 2 weeks. And also I have to thank my dearest boyfriend, who guided me and drove me across Europe during this wonderful trip. Without him I couldn't have such great experience there.

Travel is really like a key that opens door to other parts of the world. I wish I could always have the chance to travel around the world and open many doors!

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