How and when it all began

I guess you can say I was bitten by the bug in July of 2007.  Up until then I had gone on plenty of family ski trips, beach trips and spent most of my Christmases in Puerto Rico, but I hadn’t done any real travel on my own – planned by me on any kind of grand scale.  I had driven from NY to CA for a move and been in various states in the US, to Mexico, the Caribbean, Canada and Bermuda but I wouldn’t have classified myself as a traveler or tourist more of a passenger along for the ride.

I was living in Gainesville in 2007 and had been for 7 years.  I wasn’t thrilled about it; don’t get me wrong its a nice town but it is best for young families or young people (a typical college town) and I was a single mother of a teenager.  There wasn’t much to do in Gainesville for me and I was bored and getting depressed.  My uncle Mike took me to lunch one day and told me that I needed to go on a singles cruise.  I had no clue what that was but he said he’d pay for it and gave me a very large check.

Being the technology driven girl that I am, I went straight to Google and typed in singles cruises and up popped Singlescruise.com.  I looked over their website and found that in less than 2 months from that time there was a singles cruise sailing from Rome Italy for 12 days going to ports in Italy, Turkey and a few Greek Islands.  Now travel was never all that important to me but I have always wanted to go to Greece.  The trip (cruise and airfare) would be covered by the check my wonderful uncle supplied and I figured I could foot the rest of the bill myself.  The rest would include transportation to and from the airports, a hotel in Rome for 1 night, excursions, incidentals, food and drinks, and souvenirs.

I called their office to ask a few questions, was connected with Nancy, and booked my first trip – roommate to be assigned.  I have to say that was the best trip of my life.  Almost all the people (there were 120 in the group) that I met and became close to from that trip I still consider to be my best friends in the world, especially (and totally unexpectedly) the single man I met and fell for.

That year I went to Europe a total of 3 times and the first trip had been in mid July. I went to see the guy but the wanderlust had already taken hold.  I wanted to see the world.  I still do.