In September of last year, my parents informed my brother and I that we would be making a trip to Europe for the holidays. Though they had mentioned the idea in passing (near the end of summer), this was our official confirmation that they’d gone through with it. I was immediately excited by the prospect of such a trip; it would be a two-week affair, during which we’d visit Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, and Monaco. My brother was a bit hesitant at first, but eventually became motivated by the idea of talking about his experiences to his peers. So, we began preparing for the trip by purchasing clothes for the colder European weather, and by making sure all school/university work was taken care of. In my case, I notified management at my then-job about the trip, and, after they couldn’t give me the time off, I thanked my manager and sadly began drafting the resignation letter. I eventually turned it in about three weeks before I left for Europe (the trip was from December 23 to January 6, so it’s not like I quit just because I was refused time off, this just happened to be one of the reasons). To get us in the mindset of exposing ourselves to new cultures, my brother and I were tasked with preparing a presentation in which we divvied up the places we would visit and did some basic research for each of them, which was pretty fun. Soon enough, three weeks had passed and we were on a plane out of Puerto Rico. We stopped in Atlanta, “enjoying” our six-hour layover before departing for Barcelona.
The culture shock we experienced was immediate. While people from the European Union had their own desk that quickly had them en route to retrieve their baggage, everyone else was put into a seemingly endless line to get us through customs. After we got to our hotel in Sabadell, Spain, we quickly realized that a lot of the signage was in both Catalan and Spanish. We had never been exposed to the former language, so it was really interesting for us. This language barrier grew even more when we visited the other countries. It was quite the surreal experience to fail to order coffee in an Italian rest stop and then redeeming myself by ordering coffee in a Swiss café. However, an unexpected culture shock we encountered was from within our own group: we were the only Puerto Ricans in a bus full of Colombians, Mexicans, and Chileans. Add to that our Spanish tour guide and driver and we were in for quite the journey. It never stopped surprising me just how different our experiences were as Spanish speakers, and how our mannerisms varied from culture to culture.
I was really amazed to see how the group dynamic shifted throughout the trip. The morning we joined the group, most people were really defensive about their seats on the bus; some were outright rude if you asked if certain seats were available. This led to my brother and I sitting quite far from our parents more than once. Of course, the point of such a large-scale trip is to see as much as possible, but that entailed many hours spent on the bus as we drove around Europe. Much of that time was spent napping, listening to music, and reading. I occasionally talked to my family, but I didn’t feel compelled to talk to any of our neighbors. Most of them were probably around my parents’ age or older, and, as I mentioned earlier, they had also been rude to us. We did not really expect to make friends from our group. However, as we prepared to depart from Nice early one morning, we began complaining about the cold weather with a woman, who later introduced us to another young woman who was also traveling with us. Both of them were from Mexico and were somewhat used to the temperatures, as compared to our not-accustomed Puerto Rican selves. We laughed about our predicament and continued to bond over the course of our travels.
However, it was when we celebrated the New Year together in the lobby of our hotel in Zürich that we really came to bond as a group. Most of the adults had some amount of alcohol in their systems and us younger folk had gone off together to just talk and hang out as we played foosball. Toasts were made and words of gratitude were spoken, and the atmosphere changed among the group. It was mellower, kinder, and I grew fond of many people I talked to. Our driver is a great example, as he was really kind towards my family and we ended up inviting him to have dinner with us. He shared that he had two daughters and a brother he helps take care of. That treasure of a man also spoke the loveliest thing about my brother and I, encouraging us to continue being ourselves and wishing us the best in life. God, just thinking about it makes me as emotional as I was during our good-byes. The group’s final destination was Madrid and our driver and guide bid us farewell there. There were tears, hugs, photos, and promises to stay in touch. And while that was true for about a month and most of us have sort of drifted apart, the group stays united in spirit by our shared travels.
I was lucky enough to see many famous pieces of art during the trip. In France, we passed the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe several times. We drove through the Champs Elyseés and visited the Palace of Versailles and the Louvre, where we saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and other art pieces.
In Italy, we saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Colosseum, many Roman ruins, the Vatican and its museum (plus Pope Francis!), the Roman Pantheon, the Fontana di Trevi, the Venetian canals, and the Florentine Cathedral.
In Switzerland, we visited the Titlis Mountain, the Basel Cathedral, and a café near the Kapellbrücke.
We didn’t really have a chance to explore Spain, given that we did not have the time to. Even so, it was a very visually impressive and culturally rich experience!
Unfortunately, I don’t feel like I was able to make the most of the trip given how little time we spent at each location. We were always on a tight schedule to make sure we were able to do all the activities planned out by the travel agency. Yes, we were able to see a lot in all of the countries we visited, but it was so rushed that we couldn’t really take in everything around us. Booking this trip with a travel agency guaranteed that we would explore a great deal, which was a definite plus. Planning a trip of this scale by ourselves would probably have led to steeper costs and more complicated logistics. I still would have liked to linger in certain places for a few days longer and really getting to know them. Personally, another day in Florence would have made me very happy. I was hoping to visit the Uffizi Gallery, yet our time seemed to vanish and I was unable to see the inside of the gallery. Alas, that will be my first stop when I return to Europe, and I will make sure to do it.
Overall, this family trip was an unforgettable experience that I’m grateful to have been a part of. Photos and physical mementos accompany me now, serving as a reminder of all I had the opportunity to see. This was an enriching experience that I was eager to speak about ever since I came back home in early January. I’ve come to better appreciate the more classical side of visual art in different forms, as well as the cultural differences I experienced from my group and all those lovely strangers I interacted with in all those countries. I also saw snow for the first time and realized that I lost any care for the cold as soon as I started running around in the snow on those Swiss peaks. My patience for car rides has increased exponentially, I think, from all those endless bus rides. All that said, I want to encourage you to travel whenever you can, readers. It is a wonderful way to learn more about our world and, in turn, ourselves!
