Vacations.

I've had some of the best vacations in some of the best places.
When I was 11, and my sister was 6, my parents decided to take us to a new continent every year, and show us the world.

We started off with Africa. I was too young to remember anything, except that a black man had touched my ass while we were taking a picture with him. And that, in hope of seeing a lion making a kill, our family had set off at 4 in the morning in Masai Mara, in a 4x4xfar wheeler. It was supposed to be a jeep that could climb a tree. Nothing could stop it. Sleepy, hungry, irritable, we set off in our amazing jeep, but all we saw was deer and giraffes! And then it happened. The car which could climb a tree, which could be stopped by nothing, got stuck in a dumpload of muck. It had been raining all night, so everything was wet around us. We had left the main road and gone into the wild, making our own path with this fantastic car. And it failed us. Was that the worst part? Nope. In Africa, buffaloes are considered to be the most dangerous animals. More dangerous than lions and tigers and everything. And there they were, a mile away from us, a herd of buffaloes, staring at us. The walkie-talkie the driver had carried was not working since we were too far away from the main road where there was signal. So we were stuck in the middle of a Masai Mara field, with a 20 buffaloes a mile away, no communication to the rest of the world, and absolutely no food or water. I thought I was going to die there.
But ofcourse, my brilliant father devised a plan of making a track full of dry leaves and stones, starting from under the tyres, creating friction and getting us all out of there, back to our 7-star hotel.
That's pretty much all I remember from that trip. Oh yeah, and we saw a lion eating a hippo.

The next year was Australia. We were with this other family there. I dont remember the trip as well as I remember the mother of that other family. She was the mother of my then-best-friend. And her pronunciations were as bad as they get. She called 'penguins', 'penguilins'. Her son and her were walking on the street, and he saw a hotel with a "vacancy" sign outside of it. Being as young as he was, he asked his mother what that meant. She told him "Baby that is the name of the street, 'Vay-sen-see street', and this is 'No Vay-sen-see street'!" When her daughter, my best friend, picked out a nice pair of shoes, she proudly said "She is following in my footpath!". Oh, oh, oh. Those were the days. What would the trip have been without you, auntie?

The year after that was Europe. We went to Italy, Rome, Venice, Florence, Vatican City. I remember the Sistine Chapel like I saw it yesterday. And after seeing at least 59 churches in my life, I can confidently say nothing comes close to the Duomo in Milan.

Our next stop was America. I literally remember nothing about that trip, except that we went to Orlando and took the Caribbean Cruise, with Royal Caribbean.

Then, back to Europe. We did a couple of places I dont remember, and then the Mediterranean Cruise, again with Royal Caribbean.

The year after that, we did Asia, Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. Shopping. Lots of it.

Then mom fell sick. So we decided the best place to go was Goa, India. We chilled for a week. Played chess, cards, table tennis, swam, and had a truly relaxing time, unlike all our other hectic vacations which tired us more than rejuvenated us!

And this year was Austria, Switzerland and the Greek Cruise. I cant remember having a better vacation with family. I am now legally an adult, and my sister is old enough to look after herself. My parents opened up to us, cracked jokes with us, laughed with us, it was absolutely fantastic. One thing my dad said that totally shocked me, and made me realize that he finally understands Im not an innocent child was when my sister and I, the day after coming down from Jungfrau, the highest peak in the world, refused to go to Mount Titlus, as we were sick of snow and frostbitten! My dad just came in and said, "No, we have to go to Titlus, simply because of its name!" It took a second for my sister and me to realize he had made a dirty joke in front of us! Oh the cuteness of father's never cease to amaze me :) And ofcourse, I had my first beer... With my father :P It took my mom a while to digest the fact that her daughter drinks, but there was only so much she could do about it, fortunately. My cruise was double as fun as usual, because I met these 5 ladies there, crazy, English, white ladies, who had come to celebrate their friend's 50th birthday. I would be out with them every night, and I dont think I could have laughed harder with anyone else! And ofcourse, in comes cute boy, Nicholas, who I only had the courage to speak to on the last night! And the next day, standing on the pool deck, talking to him, I was sure that I had never received more dirty stares from all the girls around me than I had in those two hours :)

So that concludes my family trips. They have been fun, depressing, irritating, fattening, loved, and hated, all at the same time. But I look forward to them every year :)

One trip with my friends, though, that I will never forget, is that of Goa. Right before our final exams of IB, the 12th grade, almost my entire batch (65 people) went to Goa together for 5 days. It was the wildest time of our lives. Never again in 5 days have we laughed so hard, drank so much, slept so little, and eaten so much. My best friend and I decided to go for a ride around the city on our own, so we rented a bike (from a very reluctant bike renter, since my friend got on to the bike and didnt know how to start it) and went on our own personal tour. With her Tommy Hilfiger shoes, my Gucci glares and out short skirts, there was no way we could look any cooler. And then.... BOOM. We're sitting on the bike laughing so hard that it begins to vibrate and we laugh even harder and we dont see the truck thats coming straight towards us and by the time we see it she has turn and break immediately in order for us not to die and... We fell. Her Tommy shoes flew off and my Gucci glares flew off. I fell on a knee that I had fallen on 4 times before. And she hurt herself on her shin. You would think both of us would be worried about the bike and my knee and her shin, right? But before we cold get up, she yelled "Tommy!" and I yelled "Gucci!" and if any of the people around us were thinking of helping us up, this changed their minds. That accident cost me dearly (rather, cost my father dearly, as he paid for my surgery), but that was one trip I will cherish for the rest of my life.

So many memories, so many incidents, so many places, so few years. I might not remember all of the details of every place, but what I do know is that its these vacations, however hectic or stressful, that act as milestones in our lives, breaking up our long lives into periods "before" and "after" the vacation. I love them. And I'm thankful that I'm fortunate enough to be able to take them.