Christmas In Europe

Where to start?

From a plain itinerary perspective, we left Panama, spent three weeks in Dublin and then another three weeks in Salamanca. Then we came back to Panama. That is a little simplistic however given the wide range of emotions and experiences that we all felt, having very briefly returned to our home cities over the Christmas period.

We decided to travel back for very obvious reasons; to spend time with family and friends. Living on the road as we are doing prevents us from being with the ones we love the most. So having the opportunity to visit them at such a nice time of the year was something that we looked forward to immensely.

Arriving into Dublin Airport brought such strange feelings. Aside from the obvious cold (we had left 30 degree heat for 0 degrees and a bitterly cold wind), all my previous travels had ended with me arriving back to Dublin Airport. This time would be different, and I felt it.

We were kindly met at the airport by my wonderful parents and it was a fantastic reunion for all involved. This continued for the next three weeks as they housed us, fed us, cleaned for us and generally just looked after us. They even organised bikes for the kids to cycle around the neighbourhood, something they had really been missing during our trip.

My parents also joined us as we travelled to some familiar and less familiar places. Dun Laoghaire’s East Pier was visited, bringing back so many memories of COVID-19 enforced walks within our 2km radius. We went to numerous local parks, recalling how the kids used to play there and which things they were now too grown up for. A trip to Newgrange was also enjoyed to experience the amazing Neolithic burial chamber located there.

Yet it was probably the non-descript moments in the family home that we will remember most fondly. Whether it was the kids and grandparents playing sports happily in the garden together, sharing meals in the same kitchen seats we had done in years past, or simply watching something fun on the TV, these were precious moments and the reason we had come back to visit.

Meeting up with friends in Dublin was also fantastic. We had kept in close contact with some, whereas other relationships had been less communicative since we left. Yet it really felt like nothing had changed when we met up and relationships picked up where they had left-off.

During our time in Dublin we would observe some of the changes that the city has undergone, even in this relatively short period of time that we have been away. New buildings had shot up, road traffic had grown exponentially, and plastic bottle lids were now permanently stuck to their bottles. Oh and the price of just about everything seemed to have reached stratospheric levels. Other things seemed to stay exactly the same however, for better or worse, destined to continue ad nauseam.

Arriving into Salamanca early on Christmas Eve morning brought us into another familiar yet distant world. A smaller more traditional city than Dublin, changes in Salamanca usually occur less frequently and are more discreet. Yet they were there too, from considerably higher prices to an influx of tourists. The city was changing in its own unique way.

The welcome we got arriving to Laura’s family home was one of unbridled joy. Never mind our 2am arrival, I imagine there was not a neighbour in the building that did not hear the shouts as we entered! Again we were treated like royalty throughout our stay, with Laura’s mum and sister giving over their home to us and the kids.

Family life in Salamanca is very important. No time of the year is this more prevalent than during Christmas. In Ireland, the weeks before December 25th are usually more social, whereas Salamanca seems to engage in an endless celebration, from Christmas Eve right through to El Día de Reyes on January 6th. During this time we enjoyed spending wonderful days and nights with Laura’s immediate and wider family, laughing endlessly with fancy-dress, board games and general merriment.

Friends in Salamanca also made themselves available to spend some quality time with us. From hiking in the open countryside to evenings crammed into each other homes, we loved every minute being able to reconnect, listen and share with each other. Myself and Laura also had the opportunity to speak about our trip with an audience at a friend’s yoga studio. We really loved to share some our experiences and learnings with like-minded people.

During our trip back to Europe, myself and Laura constantly felt like we were living somewhere mixed up between two different worlds.

On the one hand, we had become accustomed to a life of simplicity, without appointments or defined schedules. While back in Europe, we constantly found ourselves chasing from one place to another (much through our own doing it must be noted). Be it separate play dates for the kids with their old buddies, lunches, dinners or drinks with friends/neighbours/colleagues, or simply figuring out how to split time with family members, it really felt non-stop and was hard to physically and emotionally manage at times.

Consumerism in the places we had been travelling certainly takes a different meaning to that of Europe at Christmas time. A moment of indulgence for the locals in rural Colombia could be buying a small bar of chocolate. It was very strange to naturally compare this as we strolled down an incandescently lit Grafton Street in Dublin, so full with people that we were holding our children’s hands for their safety. But I guess this is part and parcel of the life that western societies live. It was hard for us adjusting though we must recognise.

Requests to share details of our adventure with family and friends while visiting could best be described as ambivalent. We noted the intense interest that many people had in learning about the new cultures, food, places and people we had experienced. Alternatively, others barely broached the topic and preferred to stay in the present, both figuratively and literally. This was certainly a learning for us. Neither level of curiosity was “right or wrong”, just simply a reflection of different people’s views and importance of the people and world around them at that moment.

Saying goodbyes has been a constant theme of our adventure. Leaving both Dublin and Salamanca was certainly no different. Harder still is when you don’t know when the next encounter will be. Answering “we don’t know”, when asked when will we see you next, simply feels unsatisfactory in those moments. Although maybe this is the control and certainty that we all naturally crave as human beings that we are fighting against.

But off we went nonetheless, at 4.30am and -6 degrees on a frigid Salamanca morning, to continue our family adventure into Central America. The trip home had been a rollercoaster of emotions, but we felt energised to see more of the world and meet more incredible people!