Conclusion

“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” – Saint Augustine.

Why did we travel in the first place? Was it to find ourselves, to avoid the 9-5 job, to meet different people, to cut ourselves loose from everything we have ever known, to look for something more beautiful/dangerous etc..? I think we would have to admit that it was for all of these reasons. It’s over a year since we left Dublin to start our adventure. That adventure is over for now and it will never be forgotten.

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust

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“When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.” – Clifton Fadiman

I think that these two quotes are very significant when you travel. It is very easy to be ignorant towards the places you go. Everybody is afraid of change and sometimes we don’t understand it, which makes us somewhat ignorant towards it. When you travel you look at things differently and when you see things that you don’t like then it makes you appreciate your own life even more.

“I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it.” – Rosalia de Castro

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“Once the travel bug bites there is no known antidote, and I know that I shall be happily infected until the end of my life.” – Michael Palin

The best thing about travelling is the mystery of not knowing where you are, where you are going, what you will be doing and who you are going to meet. It’s the mystery behind it that makes it special. It is great to experience something that you are not use to and that is so far gone from where you have come from. The security and comforts of home were not around for us when we travelled. Sure we had each other but the four of us were a million miles away form home. I think the fact that we had each other was a comfort in itself and helped us through the tough times. Some people say to travel alone. Before I went travelling I would have thought that this was a bit weird, but having met lots of self travelers I understand it and respect it. When you travel by yourself, I guess you have to make more of an effort and come out of your shell even more. You probably become your own best friend at the end of the day. The one thing we will always have though is that we did this together and we can always share the memories together. Everyday had something different and the common theme throughout our travels was that of laughter. The craic was 90 everyday. We got accustomed to waking up to each others alarms, using each others cameras, I-pods etc… Oh wait that was just me!!! I think everyone added something different to the team if you will, because while we were travelling we were a team….or as Tom called us the four musketeers.

We are delighted that we have managed to keep up to date with this blog. The greatest thing about travelling is the memories that it leaves you with and to quote “The Beach” again, how you feel in a moment in time. You will always remember your travels but this blog will rekindle the memories even more. Sometimes if your having a bad day, you can just look back at where we have been and what we have done and a smile will appear on your face. Having the I-pod is great because some of the songs remind us of places we have been and certain moments from our travels.

When you travel, you instantly think that the places will make the holiday but in fact it’s just as much to do with the people that you meet. We have been so lucky on our travels to have met really genuine people who we got on with. Going all the way back to our Gap tour in South America right up to our final Gap tour in Asia this has been the case. You meet people who have similar opinions to you, contrasting opinions to you etc… and it is a great way to gain a more universal perspective to life. Of course you also meet some strange and whacky characters (Mr Pringle haha) along the way, who you only get to know for a brief moment, but funnily enough these are the people who you will always remember. You have some great conversations about all sorts of things from Religion to Prison Break!

We have seen some fantastic sights along the way- the statue of Christ the Redeemer, the Sugar Loaf mountain, Iguassu Falls, Franz Josef Glacier, the Sydney Opera house, Angkor Wat etc…and these sights will be forever stored in our memories.

Has travelling changed us? I don’t think it has changed anyone dramatically but it has changed people’s perceptions and made us all the wiser for the experience. We are still the same people with the same moral values we had before we left Ireland. However, we have grown up that bit more because of our experiences (poverty etc.). To wrap up, I think that travelling has been the best decision we have ever made and we certainly picked a great time to go. We are young and what we have seen and done, well you can’t put a price on it. And more, much more than this, we did it our way. “ONE FOR ALL, AND ALL FOR ONE”.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover” – Mark Twain