Gave a cheeky hug for no overseas travel.
ONLY for the fact, that was likely ME, and most happily so, if Lauren hadn't been so insistent,
( but I mean it more so for later on, then those early "beach holidays".)
How we both pine for that travel release & freedom.
I fully believe it added another layer to me.
To fully appreciate how others must live even on a rudimentary level, as we did, truly broadened my mind, as the saying goes.
I am not including the "holiday hotel" experience, where we, to a large degree, remained within the herd, whether at the hotel & the beaches, never more then shouting distance, from the sanity and safety (
) of other similar tourists, lovely though they were.
It was those lazy treks inland far away from the resorts, where we stumbled across villages, where WE, were more of a rarity.
Those moments where broken English, didn't quite cut the mustard.
Being followed by so many eyes ..at first worrying, but then touched by the experience.
"But for the grace of God" and location of birth, never seemed more apt.
Where life has been so seemingly pre-ordained & ordered.
As romantic or stupid as living the life seemed,
( Our goal was to experience life as a local, as far as was reasonable..... obv without too much discomfort
)
really being there, envisaging the reality for so many, awakened something in me.
That's not safe the world over, so we have been truly blessed