🌅 Last Year I Took My Mother to Florence and My Father to Lisbon - Life Goals - A Steemit Exclusive Story

in #life7 years ago (edited)

As some of you may know already, I enjoy researching and thinking about blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Next to that I am fascinated by personal time & life management. So I guess it is not surprising that I have a life document with things I want to experience, ways in which I want to develop myself and ways in which I want to contribute in life.

Last year I decided to take action on two things I wanted to experience:

  • ‘Take my mother to a city in a country where she has never been’
  • ‘Take my father to a city in a country where he has never been’.

Even though my parents are together, I wanted to experience a ‘longer’ period of being with each of them seperately.

The box with two letters

In March I gave my father a little box that he was only allowed to open once he was home and together with my mother.


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In the box were two letters; one for my mother and one for my father. The letters were practically identical and what I wrote was this:

“Dear mom,

In the first 18 years of my life I saw you practically every day. This has become a lot less nowadays. Therefore I think it would be very nice to go away with you for a few days. Will you pick a European city?

Ohyeah, some rules:

  • We’ll go for four days
  • You cannot pick a city in The Netherlands and no city allowed where one of us has already been
  • You have until the 1st of April to pick
  • We’ll go this year

Will you let me know?

Nick”

After they opened the box and read the letters they called me and told me they thought it was a very cool idea and told me that they would come back to me with some suggestions.

Picking a City

A few days later I got a text from my mom: “I will go for Bruges or Ghent.”

I texted back: “Those are very humble choices and quite close by. I’ve also already been in Bruges. Think bigger, further or even warmer ;-)”

Two days later I got another text from her: “Florence”. So Florence it was!

My dad had to think about it a bit longer and came back with Berlin and Triers. Also a bit close by and I had been there before. So he had to go back to the drawing board.

On the 31st of March I got a text from him: “Nick, Lisbon or Stockholm can be interesting.” Followed by “Lisbon.” So, Lisbon it was!

In the following weeks I booked the flight to Florence and chose a nice hotel. My mom and I decided to go in the beginning on June which turned out to be very good timing.

The trip to Florence with my mom

The flight was fine, my 58-year old mother has flown a few times before. We flew from Amsterdam to Rome to Florence and landed a bit after lunchtime. When we arrived it was around 27 degrees, perfect!

Our hotel was a 10 minute walk from the city center so we checked in and went out to get something to eat.

Some pictures of our trip

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It was an amazing trip and the weather was awesome. We saw a lot of things and walked a lot around the city. We were able to catch up on a lot of things and my mom even told me a few things about my childhood that I didn’t know before!

The trip to Lisbon with my dad

We decided that October was a good month to go. Relatively less tourists (like us), still warm. Eventually we went the last few days of the month.

It was actually my dad’s second time in an airplane ever. The previous time was 30 years ago to Dubrovnik with my mom. So he didn’t really know how it all worked with our baggage, the checking in and the security checks. It was fun :-P Luckily the flight went as planned and we arrived just in time for lunch.

My dad has been long distance running all his life, so even though he is 66, he is perfectly capable of walking for hours!

Some pictures of our trip

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My dad really loved the trip. After we were back he talked about it a lot with other people I heard. Now that his pension is around the corner, I expect my dad will want to go on more trips. This trip was also nice to practice a bit for New-Zealand, where he will go next year.

That was it...

Both trips were very special in their own way and I would recommend it to everybody. I like the fact that my parents both picked warm locations :-)

I think I will definitely do this again in a few years!


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Great story and absolutely stunning photos. There is something to be said if you can travel well with family :)

Thanks for the kind words @sequentialvibe!

I'm enjoying to reading this post thanks

Awesome photos. Life goals indeed 👍

Apparently, it was an extraordinarily great experience (the pictures says so). Beyond that, I can imagine the smiles on your parents faces and the joy in their hearts. They must be really proud of you @cryptotem

Since I have no Dad, I guess whenever I'm ready, I'd take my Mum to two different places ☺.

Keep glowing Sir.
You're inspiring me already

Thanks @fada.emma! Their smiles were indeed quite big :-)

Definitely take you mom somewhere! I tried to make the trips really 'their' trips, so they could pick where to go and what do to :-)

Making her choose the destination is a great idea but I'm not quite ready right now (financial constraints). Nevertheless, I'll definitely do it this year even if it's for two days.

Are you the only child @cryptotem?

Sounds like a good plan!

I actually have a sister and two brothers :-)

Great.

You're the brain behind this plan. I'd tag you to the post when the time comes.

My regards to your siblings

That is a pretty cool idea to do actually, and a great way to do some bonding later in life when you're a little further away from mam and paps!

Also that giant skeleton looks very awesome! And overall nice pics, especially Florence

Yeah that skeleton was HUGE! It was some kind of strange art exhibition. The picture below the skeleton shows art as well. As in, that steel brick, that is the art object :-P

I can tell your parents are really proud of you. What you did is really healthy for them and trust they won't forget it. You did good bro

Thank you for the kind words @chicsman!

This is such a thoughtful gesture. Love your post :D Wishing you great success on your Steemit journey.

Florence is such a heavenly place. Structures and culture are really great. Glad you enjoyed the adventure! Awesome photos too!

It definitely is a very nice city. Hopefully I will be able to go there another time (with the same kind of weather please :-P)

Yes I agree. Weather should be forgiving on each travel! Good luck mate!

Wow wow wow... Look so much fun there!😊😊😊 ... This pict tell anything... Have a nice day 💖💖💖 .... Cant wait to read about next trip soon 😊😊 Screenshot_2018-02-20-13-30-32.png

Great idea.

I hope you tried some more typical Portuguese dishes. We have really great food.

Yeah, the one on the picture was not really Portugese was it? :-P We did try some local food as well and you are right, it's GOOD!

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