Lefty Parent

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Living & parenting without the rule book

Posts Tagged ‘backpacking through europe’

Army Brats

Friday, December 4th, 2009

My European Backpacking Trip ID

My European Backpacking Trip ID

It is interesting that some of us, including yours truly, are bitten by the travel bug while others of us don’t seem to be into this sort of adventure at all, even when blessed with golden opportunities to do so. As I learned from my dad, life at its best should be an adventure, maybe not always fun or easy, but a compelling narrative to experience and share with others. It was that principle that motivated me to plan a three-month European backpacking odyssey with one of my close high school friends. It was also that principle that inspired me to keep going when my friend and travel companion decided to bail on our European adventure and head back to the United States. (more…)

Posted by Cooper Zale, in Adventure No Comments »

Adventures, Odysseys & Ordeals

Friday, April 17th, 2009

In 1973, at age 18, I journeyed to Europe with a female friend who got cold feet after our first few days in England, and after struggling with the decision to continue on my own (including a tearful international call to my mom from a pay phone), I pushed forward for nine weeks by myself. These events turned the trip from a fun adventure with a good friend into a much more intense existential odyssey, a stranger in a strange land of languages I could not speak or understand and other heavily developmental experiences. (more…)

Posted by Cooper Zale, in Adventure 2 Comments »