/ˈmemˌwär/ noun. a record of events written by a person having intimate knowledge of them and based on personal observation. Usually memoirs. an account of one's personal life and experiences; autobiography. the published record of the proceedings of a group or organization, as of a learned society.
It’s week ten and I’m so thrilled with how many of you are participating! Thank you all for joining us.
In fact, Memoir Monday has grown so much that I won’t be able to comment on everyone’s posts anymore (and get my own work done) but I’ll still be reading as many as possible, supporting your posts with reblogs, votes, and sharing on my external social media accounts (X, Facebook, etc.). Please don't forget to use #memoirmonday as your main post tag so your post is as visible as possible.
For all of those who’ve regularly participated in Memoir Monday - keep going, you’re making great progress in crafting your very own life story for future generations to enjoy.
For those who missed the inaugural post explaining what the Memoir Monday initiative is all about you can find it here.
Now for next week’s Memoir Monday prompt:
I always dreamed of traveling but didn’t take my first overseas trip until I was forty-five in 2016. The first trip was to Amsterdam and it changed me on a deep level.
Nothing shifts your perspective and worldview as completely as experiencing other cultures. I can always tell how much a person has traveled by how open minded they are.
From 2016 to 2020 I traveled quite a bit - London, Portugal, Ireland, St. Thomas, Montreal, and Amsterdam for a second time. The pandemic years brought that streak to a temporary end but we resumed again in the autumn of 2023 when we went to Ireland. Next, I’d love to see Japan and other parts of Asia. There’s no greater satisfaction or emotional high than experiencing a new destination for the first time.
Over the years I’ve learned it’s best to have a plan, more like a loose framework of things you want to do and see, for each destination but to leave plenty of room for flexibility and spontaneity. For example, we like to plan one or two things for each day but be willing to enjoy those unplanned experiences in the moment, as we discover them. I guarantee the memories you’ll talk about for the rest of your lives will spring out of situations that weren’t planned or, sometimes, not even anticipated.
Spending less than three full days in a city won’t allow you to enjoy the deeply satisfying feeling of getting to know the soul of a foreign place and its people. Five days in a city is even more ideal, ten days is better still. Time passes at an incredibly fast clip when you’re traveling, especially once you make it beyond the halfway point of your trip. Sometimes it seems like you spend months planning and relishing the anticipation of a trip but before you know it the trip is over and you’re already boarding the plane home.
If traveling to Europe or Asia from North America I’ve learned it’s best to plan on being there for twenty or thirty days if you can. Transcontinental flights have become outrageously expensive and you can get a lot more experiences for your buck if you plan longer trips versus separate trips that require paying for two or three transatlantic/pacific flights.
For example, if you want to see England, plan for a longer trip and visit Ireland and France as well. It will be a much better value than seeing those three countries on different trips over the course of several years. This is a mistake I’ve made in the past and I see many others make.
I think another mistake most people make is having the mindset of, “I may never make it back here so I need to see everything I can.” They sightsee at a breakneck pace checking as many things off their list as they can and enjoy very little of it. In the process they skim the surface of what a destination has to offer but miss out on the really good experiences. The life-altering moments that create lasting memories are almost always off the beaten path and aren’t always found in travel guides. Some of my best memories have been just ordinary things like sitting in some cafe outside, enjoying a meal and a glass of wine, and watching life unfold all around me.
What is my most memorable trip? All of them.
It’s difficult to pick a “most memorable trip” because I have memorable moments from all my trips. I’ll never forget my first time in London in 2019. My wife and I landed in Heathrow, strung out from not sleeping a wink on the flight over the Atlantic.
We took an Uber from the airport to where we were staying in Covent Garden and just as we were driving past Buckingham Palace we stumbled across a procession of the Royal Guard. What a great first impression of the city!
The Uber dropped us off at our Airbnb, we schlepped our luggage up the impossibly steep staircase of our Victorian era flat and immediately collapsed for a short nap. I woke up before Raymi and went on a walkabout in that incredible city, all alone. London felt so oddly and unexplainably familiar. Maybe it was genetic memory because it’s where some of my ancestors originated from.
Then there was the time in 2023 when my brother and I rented bikes in Montreal and ended up cycling over twenty miles over the St. Lawrence River and explored a completely new part of Montreal.
Or when my friend Juan and I decided, on a whim, to try zip lining for the first time in Montreal. While in Montreal another year we decided to take a random art class we found on Airbnb.
My wife and I walked miles across the city of Lisbon one evening to find an Italian restaurant that served the most incredible pizza.
The two of us decided to walk off the pizza and strolled back, to our hotel in central Lisbon. As twilight turned to dark, we walked through all kinds of quaint little neighborhoods where people were just busy enjoying their lives.
In 2019 we stayed in a brownstone right off one of the main canals in central Amsterdam for ten days.
We found a grocery store within walking distance and would get essentials every few days. We got to know our way around the city and developed a daily routine. It began to feel like we actually lived there.
In 2023 my wife, son and I were touring Blarney Castle in Ireland and after a long day on our feet we were chilled and starved. We walked to an old hotel/restaurant in a little town adjacent to the castle and I had one of the best meals of my life.
What a blessing, we're so incredibly lucky to be able to do this. I’m grateful to have made lots of memories like this from our trips. These memories are worth more than any material thing could ever hope to be. It's moments like these that make for a truly rich life. In my opinion, if done mindfully, there are few things in this world as educational, fulfilling, and meaningful as travel. I hope to have the good fortune of doing much more of it before I leave this Earth. Life is very much like a trip after all, it speeds up tremendously after the halfway point.
It's that simple.
At the end of the next twelve months we'll have created something immensely valuable together. It's so important to know our "whys" in life and there's no better way to do that than this.
Someday all that will be left of our existence are memories of us, our deeds, and words. It's up to you to leave as rich of a heritage as possible for future generations to learn from. So, go ahead, tell your stories. I can't wait to read them.
Be well and make the most of this day. I want to sincerely thank all of the participants thus far. I've really enjoyed reading your posts!
~Eric Vance Walton~
(All photos are original.)
