Some ponderings on travels

We didn't travel much as kids.  

Unfortunately the family didn't have much money - I remember one of the best family holidays we had was all the way from Greytown to the Hawkes Bay.  And that seemed pretty far away.  Not to say that we didn't enjoy the voyages we did take.

Well, actually...

While I always enjoyed the destinations, and the company, I do remember not enjoying travelling.  Being in a car for any longer than half an hour always seemed to drag for me, to the point where I would try and avoid it where possible, from memory.  I sort of saw that reflected today a little. 

There we were wandering around St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, taking in the marvels of one of the world's largest churches and the riches inside.  It's a marvellous spectacle, but I'll come back to this at a later post.  Needless to say that we, and the majority of those there, were thoroughly enjoying it.

And then you see the teenagers there with their parents, who have graciously covered the cost of said teenagers to take in this rather magnificent spectacle, looking thoroughly non-plussed, as if they'd rather be anywhere else than right there.  So there I am, thinking, how ungrateful!  Here you are in one of the world's great monuments, and this is how you're choosing to repay the parents who probably had to sacrifice to get you here?

Then I realised, I probably wasn't that different at her age.  Okay, slight difference between the back of the station wagon between Greytown and Hastings and the Basilica, but same basic concept.

So, in some respects, perhaps it is better to wait.  I didn't get my passport until I was around 25, but since then I've been to ten countries (and counting), and I'm enjoying every minute of it.  I don't think I really would have got as much out of my travels if I was a petulant teenager taking in the grandeur of Europe or the States.

But here I am now, getting as much as I possibly can out of this trip, and thinking about where to go after this, or where to plan for another voyage.  And, when I'm on that voyage I'll probably complain that I was too young in my 30's to appreciate it...