I've got my mind on vacation and vacation on my mind!

For the past year I have been planning two big trips. The first was to J-bay for the Billabong Pro surf competition and the second was to see my family. As PCVs we are allowed 2 vacation days per month, we cannot travel our first or last 3 months of service and under our old CD, we could use up all of our vacation days (if we so choose) after our first year. Aware of these conditions early on, I carefully planned out my vacations. I took a week for Christmas 2010 in Mozambique and then gave myself a week for J-bay and a little under a month with my parents leaving me with about 8 days to take the GRE and maybe one last surf trip in S.A. I had asked my parents to plan a trip roughly past my 1 year mark- which would give me something to work towards and my only requirement was that we had to be near the ocean for part of it. In the end, the winning destination was Italy! I decided that I would meet them there and I’d stop in Germany before hand. It worked out perfectly. I did 6 days in Berlin then met my parents, aunty and uncle in Florence where we took a train down to Cinque Terre, the 5 breath-taking towns on the Oceanside. I spent 6 days there where we hiked, played in the ocean, ate amazing seafood and even attempted to surf (but sadly all the surfboards were rented out). While my family stayed there, I went to Rome to see the jaw-dropping and awe-inspiring architecture and artifacts that I grew up studying about. It was mind blowing. I stayed for 3 days then met my family up in Venice for 4 days. From Venice we went to Florence for another 4 days and I went back to Berlin for a day then Paris for another day, and finally ended the trip in Jo’burg. It was an absolutely incredible, breath-takingly beautiful and wonderfully rejuvenating trip. The best part (well besides the amazing seafood) was getting to see my family again. Perhaps next year they will come to Africa? ;)