2 weeks, 8 flights, 20,000 Fitbit steps and approximately 7 miles per day, numerous shuttles, metro rides and even a few Uber and Lyft rides thrown in, my girlfriend and I have returned safely to Utah. Just with feet and cankles that feel like a whale carcass off of Guadalupe Island after the Great Whites found it. Long live #SharkWeek, I will refrain from mentioning shoe brands for fear of losing future endorsements.
A story of the new meets the old.
Our family on my mom’s mother’s side arrived in this country in Maine in 1607. Thanks to elaborate genealogical research done by the family, we’ve traced relatives who arrived to Casco Bay off of the Portland coast (part of the Calendar Islands, 365 in sum), not to mention more than a few from the Mayflower. While I joked with my mom about the recipe to a great nap being playing the audiobook on the Mayflower settlers in the car, it was fun to share lobster with generations of the Furlong, Leighton, and Knowlton clans dispersed across this great land. We commemorated my legendary grandfather, who passed last summer and had adopted Maine as his, for reasons we grew to know well every summer growing up.
After a quick Boston visit, reuniting with Study Australia study abroad friends in the South End and Back Bay, it was off to Europe. TAP Portugal, along with Norweigan have offered great deals from certain locations (keep an eye out on Twitter for these), which we capitalized on over Hawaii or South America.
To avoid ridiculous roaming charges, it was Airplane Mode from then on (except for emergencies). Here’s to testing the claim that millennials can’t operate without consistent WiFi and outlets.
Although my Airbnb “mom” in Prague might tell you otherwise, it worked out okay without WiFi in foreign speaking lands, despite being a 1st timer on a number of fronts.
Once a property of the U.S.S.R. with major city statues of Stahlin, Czechoslovakia split from the red grasp in 1989 and a few years later, the Czech Republic and Slovakia (where my father’s mother’s Demovic relatives hailed) split from each other a few years later. Not more than a few years ago, Prague was supposed to be the place to go to live like a king on the cheap. Not so much anymore as the secret is out. The history and architecture is amazing, walkable, and German-like food and beers are still cheap though (under $2 at most places for premium local beers).
On to Barcelona, where we felt the ramifications of an airline services strike that started in France (see previous blog post). Thanks to Marriott Rewards, we stayed at a hotel so modern that we didn’t figure out how to turn on the lights until we checked out. Glass, Palm tree motif and live foliage throughout. My kind of place minus the uppity service. And oh, the pool:
We spent five nights soaking in the infectious laid-back culture, the modern (read: oh-so topless) beaches, tapas (too many good places to rely on recommendations) and Gaudi influence of all the different neighborhoods and their tiny, walkable corridors. We met some newlywed Americans while wearing my authentic Nike USA Soccer polo (from Team USA), Californians in Portland who happened to be big Timbers fans that checked out Camp Nuell (F.C. Barcelona stadium) backstage. No peanut gallery comments while taking US&A photos around town. My New Orleans Hornets dry fit the day before got more banter from an enthusiastic NBA fan yelling across the Metro stop for 20 minutes about his love for basketball, us, and mostly himself.
Because our flight was round-trip via Prague, we had to fly back there despite our Lisbon connection being only an hour away. We made the best of it by stocking up on more Czech Absinthe. We were pretty worn by the time we touched down in Lisbon, and the WiFi-less Metro to walk all over a town filled with cobblestones with slopes like San Francisco to find our Airbnb was a chore. We made the best of the next morning, checking out an ancient castle in scenic Lisbon, grabbing a local bite, a few gifts and a real sweat before our flight of which we made by the narrowest of margins after getting lost on the walk back.
My takes? Yes, millennials can survive in unfamiliar lands (nearly) devoid of WiFi. With a little bit of Spanish, some luck and a sense of adventure, we proved that. The Spanish and Portugese are tremendous folks, but lack the sense of hospitality that we have here (it wasn’t just that I was wearing my new FC Barca shirt on the TAP Portugal flight back with Portugal just making it to the Euro Cup Championship). Using plastic is a chore unlike in the States. Living like a local via Airbnb is the way to go, doing more than the tourist traps even if it means getting lost in a neighborhood etc. while getting to know the Metro to save $. Airports were much easier to navigate there then here (I didn’t have issues until having to go through Security twice in Boston on the way back). JetBlue rocks kind of like Southwest used to.
It was quite the adventure, getting acclimated with the lineage on and mostly off-the-grid. With a good international cell/WiFi service, a Tim Ferriss “4-Hour Workweek” lifestyle can be had rich in life experiences in places where you can find new perspectives, which was fully put into view when arriving back in a country full of mass shootings and race wars.
Obrigado (“thanks” in Portugese).
TRUE NORTH TEAM CONSULTING 