I am on a quest. And the purpose of my quest is simple: to be surrounded by beautiful environments, natural or man-made, to dive into the lifestyles and piculars of people i meet or reuinte with along the way, eat really fucking good food, get lost and hopefully find my way out, go swimming everyday, and get whatever little tan my irish heritage will allow me.
And so far, i have been blessed to have experienced pieces of all those things. But as many of us know, our plans never go as romantically or idealically as expected. So far my heart was streched deeper than I could ever imagened with my time spent in Wales working at the camp, my two weeks in Ireland in family allowed me the quiet time to calm my thoughts and fears, feed my soul with good food and conversations with family. My time in London with Lauren was honestly too short. I love hanging out with lauren for multiple reasons: a) we always have fun b) we always have more fun than anyone else! c) we center eachother and encourage eachother to live life to the fullest. Thanks Laur. After London, I went to Rome before the family arrived, to see the eternal city on my own for a few days. It was amazing, but cities always make be feel lonely if Im not with loved ones, so I was very excited when Benny arrive followed by the rest of the Morehart clan in the following days. From Rome, 56 Morehart's boarded a cruise ship and saw Cannes, Barcelona, Mallorca, Tunsia and Sicily. All these beautiful places were spectacular, but it was the gift of exploring them and sharing those memories with cousins, aunts and uncles that made the trip wonderful.
Back in Rome we spent another week with a friend who was born and lives there part of the year. What a way to see Rome! With our own personal tour guide, he knew all the best resturants, sites, and markets to see.
And so the family, bit by bit flew back home. Bodie changed his ticket last minute and has joined me for a week exploring Crete. So we been driving south and floating west along the Cretian coast staying in the little port towns and swimming in perfectly warm and clear waters. Its not bad!
With almost two months of travelling worn through on my shoes, things never went as expected. In Mallorca I got injured (and shattered my $1,500 camera) and its been prohibiting me to move as fast as before, but its probably good I stay on the cautious side once I start travelling alone again. Back in Rome, Benny and I got robbed within hours of being back in the city, with over $4,000 in belongings stolen. Back home, I miss my dogs terribly and occasionally wake up at night wishing i was in my own soft bed, I find myself worry about finances, job opportunities I may be missing, etc. Moreover, a dear friend of mine has gone through another intensive surgery, elonging his own journey of healing from a serious accident that happened over a year ago. So, there have been things that make me stratch my head and question: what the fuck am I doing here? But I think whenever we go aboard, there is always a pull to go home, with more than not, the fantasy of home being so cosy and reunited with friends, things and routines we start to really miss. But like travelling, nothing turns out like expected. Travelling always wakens us up to this.
Yesterday we arrived by ferrier to Agia Roumeli, walked up to a cafe where the owner sat with us for over an hour asking about our travels and telling us about this part of Crete, his family, and other small talk. We put our stuff in a room and hiked along a stoney dirt trail east of the little village, past pine trees that smelled sweet in the midday sun, by a few campers set up under the trees, and the sound of the local goats' bells gently making noise as they casually cruised by...we climbed around some caves, stepped over a few naked sunbathing Greeks, and literally stumbled down the path onto a huge isolated pebble beach. We flung our hot bodies into the sea and spent the rest of the day there. I think I swam at least 1000 meters and didnt get out of the water for 4 hours straight.
It was a good day. A day that made me think: I'm in Greece! This is where I am supposed to be right now, right HERE, floating in the warm clear water, tanning my skin and exploring parts of this paradise with my brother.
