Inspiring Friends!

As someone who appreciates referrals, I'd like to refer you all to some people that I've met while working in the travel business. They are wonderful people who have made careers out of doing the things they love to do! 



As someone who who is always looking for the beauty in traveling, I find these two websites very inspiring. I had the pleasure of meeting the Brewer twins a few years ago when working for a college travel company and I am always amazed at their ability to capture beauty so magnificently. 

Locally Foreign

Clark Brewer Photography


The next is a beautiful young lady whom I met while working for the same company. Britany and I have a lot in common - both writers, both travelers and both in love with the Beatles. If you are looking for someone to help with your wedding, she is definitely a top choice! Check out her lovely Beatles-inspired wedding packages!

Southern Knots


I hope you all enjoy these and get inspired to do what you love!

Insignificant Moments

One of my favorite things about traveling is my ordinary (or sometimes not so ordinary) interactions with the locals. When I traveled to Europe for thirty days back in the summer of 2010, I had a few that still are alive in my mind. While these memories are forever burned in my mind, they aren't necessarily significant to the every day person. The reason they are to me is because, for a moment, even though there was a huge language barrier between us, I was able to have a conversation with someone who lived a completely different life from me. 

The first from that trip was in Heidelberg, Germany. If you know anything about me, you probably know that I lived in Germany for three years when I was younger. Because of this, I absolutely love Germany. I love the people and the food and although I don't know hardly any German, I do know how to count to ten (and say I love you, but that wasn't very helpful!). We stayed at a small hotel on the countryside right outside of Heidelberg. It was beautiful and the people who worked in the restuarnt knew about as much English as I knew German (or maybe less?). The manager/bartender was an adorably plump German man and he didn't know a lick of English. Our waiter didn't know much either so we resorted in writing all of our orders down in German to make things easier on them since there was at least twenty of us occupying about four long tables. There were a couple snotty girls on the trip with us though, who didn't get the memo. They tried to tell the waiter what they wanted and tried to tell him to omit this and add that... the typical American. The poor fella had no idea and the girls just kept getting frustrated at him and snotty. Myself and the rest of my table felt absolutely awful for the way the girls were treating them. This was THEIR country and their language was German, not English. They had no right to get so mad at these people because they didn't know English. After dinner, a few of us stayed behind and ordered drinks at the bar. There, we were able to show the manager and waiter that we were nothing like our annoying counterparts. We may never have spoken a word of German and they may never have spoken a word of English, but we someone understood each other and ended up laughing and smiling. The manager even ended up giving me pretty much a whole drink for free because he had some left over in his blender. It was a small gesture of kindness after such negativity from the others and I was so grateful that these wonderful people knew that we were nothing like them. It may not have been a significant moment in his life or even mine. But, the memory will always stay with me. 

The next two memories happened in Madrid, Spain. I know a decent amount of Spanish because I took it in high school and college. This does not mean I know enough to have a full on conversation with someone who is fluent. 

The first happened when a girl from my trip and my boyfriend at the time decided to stop at a little supermarket on the way back to our hotel. The place was super tiny and the only wine they had were about five bottles behind the cash register. The young Asian woman behind the counter was the only person working. I walked up to her, tried my best to ask which wine was the best (I'm pretty sure I probably just pointed to the bottles and said "Vino... Bueno?") and looked crazy trying to mime it. She spoke fluent spanish to me and tried her best to mime back. From what I gathered, the cashier didn't drink wine but she had a friend who was a drunk and loved it. At least that's what I assumed. She then proceeded to take the cork out of one of the bottles and pulled out a dixie cup (All I could think at this moment is no one would ever get away with this in the States... and why does she have a cork screw and a dixie cup at the ready if she doesn't drink? But I digress...) and pour a white wine into the cup. She then handed it to me. I took a sip and then the girl with me took a sip. It wasn't half bad and it was only three or four Euros. We made another exchange about her drunken friend in my half decent half horrible spanish and the wine was purchased and we were on our way. I still can't believe she let us try the wine before we bought it. What if we hadn't liked it? Would she have put the cork back in and tried to resell? I guess I'll never know.

The next moment happened in a moment I've tried to forget for the longest time. I had a bad experience when I was caught in a thunderstorm.... alone.... in Madrid.... in an area I didn't know well at all. There wasn't enough room in the taxi, my boyfriend decided to take off running alone, I wasn't going to leave him by himself in a strange city but he was faster than me and didn't realize I was following so I ended up alone and lost. Now when I say thunderstorm.. I mean terrential downpour with water up to my shins on the sidewalk and knees in the street (maybe even higher). I didn't have an umbrella and I was wearing flip flops and jeans. Ever tried to walk in a downpour in flip flops? Yeah, not easy. Add in the jeans weighing you down, being in a city you don't know that's famous for pickpocketing and being absolute hystericall crying and you've got a joy of a time (acknowledge the sarcasm). As I was saying, I was alone and after about thirty minutes or so I happened to recognize a museum we had gone to earlier that day and remembered the general direction of our hotel from there. I was almost there, but I had to cross a busy street. I'm standing there on the corner and watching people walk.... well, more like swim... across and I don't know what in the world to do. The water is literally thigh deep and it's hard enough to walk through calf deep water with jeans and flip flops, I was stressing out that I'd be hit by a car in the process. At the moment where I'm about to completely lose it, I see the girl next to me laughing. I turn to her and she looks at me, shakes her head and then motions likes she swimming. She clearly knew I couldn't speak English so she was miming it to me. For some reason, that was exactly what I needed. Maybe she wasn't a familiar face to comfort me but having an interaction with a human being at that moment was exactly what I needed to feel alright. (although I was a complete wreck during thunderstorms for a good year and a half after this traumatizing day)

I know these experiences probably don't mean much to the average person, but if you love travel for some of the same reasons I do then they just might. I love those little moments. I love the jiggle of a German bartenders belly as he's laughing at my bad attempt at German, I love the jokes of a cashier as she's helping you find what you're looking for and the stranger's attempt at making conversation on a street corner. I love being a part of someone else's world, if only for a moment. I wonder if those people ever think about the interaction they had with a silly little American girl.

You never know.

Over & Out,

Katie Hill

From Here to There Travel

Katie@FromHeretoThereTravel.com