Travel

Without looking for it, we found blue everywhere in Cartagena – in the walls, the skies, the seas, in the beaded necklaces and the words of poets. But far from melancholy, it was electric. It was, like everything else in Colombia, full of passion, full of vigour and joy.

Maybe I don’t think about a wedding very often, but the honeymoon? Oh, I’ve thought about the honeymoon. Some secluded little island where the water is turquoise and the sky so big, where there are as many stars as grains of sand. Somewhere where fish are plentiful, where the fruit drops out of trees, where we can spend our days underwater and our nights tangled up in each other. I don’t know where this island is. Bora Bora? Seychelles? I don’t know.

What I do know is, for someone who has spent the majority of life as a single woman, and definitely as a single traveller, I’ve been to a hell of a lot of honeymoon destinations already. Some of these places I’ve been to alone, some I’ve been to with family, and some I’ve been to with a friend. Despite the lack of a romantic partner, I’ve certainly had some very memorable experiences. In fact, one could say that these experiences were even romantic. Because who says that romance can’t be experienced solo, or that romance can’t be experienced between a human and a place?

I don’t have any photos of poppies. But today, for those we’ve lost, for those we remember, here are some flowers from around the world.

I was on one of those three-day tours from Hanoi that guaranteed a true Hmong experience. It was my first time to Southeast Asia, and I had arrived from Japan on holiday for a few weeks. The trip was booked on a whim, a necessary break from the months teaching in classrooms, a chance for my skin to finally see the sun again. The taxi from the airport hurtled down the highway – I had never seen such chaos. Motorbikes were laden with whole families, their pigs strapped to the sides; bandana-covered faces stared at me through slats in trucks, men off to try to make a few dollars for a day’s work.

The plan had been fairly straightforward: we were to arrive by train in Bucharest, the capital of Romania, around 8pm. We had already booked a hostel in the city, but we wanted to purchase our train tickets for Varna, Bulgaria, while we were still at the train station.

We had just spent a week in Transylvania, the famous home of Dracula, and so had arrived in Bucharest from the small town of Brasov. The week had fulfilled our every expectation and then some, with green landscapes, cobblestoned towns, and plenty of castles perched ominously on hilltops, perfect for sleeping all day and drinking blood all night. Why we had come to Romania at all was an impromptu decision, a three-week holiday booked between two friends who wanted to see an unusual part of the world. We had looked at a map and chosen a place we knew nothing about.

18 countries together. That’s a lot of laughs, and a lot of great moments, but it’s also a lot of tears and a lot of hardships. Travelling together can be one of the most difficult challenges your friendship will face, but, if you follow these tips, you’ll ultimately become even better friends, and closer than ever before.

So, how can you travel with your best friend…and still manage to be best friends at the end of it?