The Trip of a Lifetime - My Son's Big Adventure

[mom45]

More blog entries have been made at http://sketchytravels.com

Now that he is in France, there are more photos added as well. I will post a few of my favorites that he has shared so far and this is a sketch he did as a thank you gift to the family he has been staying with for the past few days. He has been treated like family and shared in the grandmother's birthday party upon his arrival....fed well and enjoyed some great company. He is truly enjoying the wonderful hospitality offered.

 

[mom45]

Turin, Italy is the current flavor of the day.

Here is a cityscape photo....

And his drawing of the above picture. This is a gift for his current host...took him about 18 hours to complete. This was drawn directly onto the wall above the entry door inside the host's home. For scale...this is wider than the door and about 2-1/2 foot tall.

Some other sketches from the past couple of days while enjoying the area.

More photos of Turin including some from an art exhibit he attended can be seen here.

Italy Slideshow by Skeaky | Photobucket


Next stop is Verona and then Venice.

 

[Sylvain]

I just been to Venice, not Turin, it's beautiful.
The only problem is that you have to swim to cross the street.

 

[mom45]

I did some rearranging in the Italy folder on Photobucket so I see it messed up a couple of the above posts. This has all of the photos from that album included in it...too many good ones to just pick out a few to share. The blog at Sketchy Travels Blog has a lot of info on this portion of the trip and the history behind some of the old architecture seen in the photos.

http://s76.photobucket.com/user/Skeaky/2016 Iceland-Europe Trip/Italy/story

 

[mom45]

For those who are viewing this but don't want to use the link to view the album, here are a few of my favorites.

This homeless guy and his dog made a great subject for some portraits that can be drawn later. He was talking to the dog and the dog just kept snuggling closer to him. My son really wanted to talk to him and learn his story, but the language barrier prevented that from happening.

The wooden roof in this cathedral is amazing.

This is an older church that is under the cathedral...built hundreds of years earlier.

 

[Sylvain]

Nice pics Mom!
Is it still in Venice?

 

[mom45]

He apparently had a change of plans and went to Verona first. He has been there with a very generous couchsurfing host for a few days and then will be heading to Venice next I think. We spent a lot of time chatting online yesterday so that was a great thing! He is learning so much about the places he is seeing and it is having a wonderful impact on his perspectives and ideas about others.

 

[Sylvain]

He apparently had a change of plans and went to Verona first. He has been there with a very generous couchsurfing host for a few days and then will be heading to Venice next I think. We spent a lot of time chatting online yesterday so that was a great thing! He is learning so much about the places he is seeing and it is having a wonderful impact on his perspectives and ideas about others.

That's nice Mom!

 

[mom45]

I think I may run away from home and join him!

 

[melensdad]

I think I may run away from home and join him!

You should.

This summer my wife and I spent 2 months backpacking across Spain. We figure we walked close to 550 miles carrying everything we needed in our backpacks, started in southwest France, stopped at the Atlantic Ocean. Crossed 3 mountain ranges, the flat barren meseta, through large cities and tiny villages with less than 50 inhabitants. 1000 year old villages, 1300 year old churches, fortresses built by the Knights Templar, and walled cities with Moorish architecture.

What your son is doing is a life altering experience. No reason you shouldn't do the same. Kids shouldn't have all the fun.

 

[Sylvain]

You should.

This summer my wife and I spent 2 months backpacking across Spain. We figure we walked close to 550 miles carrying everything we needed in our backpacks, started in southwest France, stopped at the Atlantic Ocean. Crossed 3 mountain ranges, the flat barren meseta, through large cities and tiny villages with less than 50 inhabitants. 1000 year old villages, 1300 year old churches, fortresses built by the Knights Templar, and walled cities with Moorish architecture.

What your son is doing is a life altering experience. No reason you shouldn't do the same. Kids shouldn't have all the fun.

 

[mom45]

You should.

This summer my wife and I spent 2 months backpacking across Spain. We figure we walked close to 550 miles carrying everything we needed in our backpacks, started in southwest France, stopped at the Atlantic Ocean. Crossed 3 mountain ranges, the flat barren meseta, through large cities and tiny villages with less than 50 inhabitants. 1000 year old villages, 1300 year old churches, fortresses built by the Knights Templar, and walled cities with Moorish architecture.

What your son is doing is a life altering experience. No reason you shouldn't do the same. Kids shouldn't have all the fun.

This sounds rather similar to the things he has seen. The couchsurfing experience definitely has some hidden benefits we hadn't considered. We had no idea that the hosts would be so generous with their services as tour guides, offer the use of their vehicles/bicycles or provide transportation to sites that shouldn't be missed, etc. I had no idea this experience could be achieved on a limited budget. I'm afraid the hiking and climbing would not be something I could do as well as he is, and I would probably limit where we could travel. I am certainly enjoying his blog and hearing what he is doing/seeing. I have probably talked to him more in the past two months than I did in the last year when he was busy working crazy overtime to bank money for this trip.

 

[Dosproduction]

that is awesome. He is a good artist.

 

[mom45]

that is awesome. He is a good artist.

Thanks! Mom's rather proud of him.

He arrived in Vienna, Austria this morning so I am waiting for more updates.

I'm thinking about having a photo book made for my parents as a Christmas gift since they aren't online and can't follow along and see his sketches/photos. I would love to get suggestions if anyone has had a book like this made and has had a good experience. I'm not so concerned with the price as I want it to be a quality product that our family would enjoy for years. My parents are elderly and really don't have much they NEED so I want to buy something they will enjoy that isn't just another trinket that will get put on a shelf. My dad and my son share the artistic talent (Dad studied at the Art Institute in Chicago in the 50's) so this would be a special thing for him in particular.

 

[mom45]

I have been rather negligent with my updates. He was having difficulties finding wifi for a couple of weeks and wasn't able to communicate with me as much and then I got busy with the neighbor that I help after her knee replacement surgery.

I'll try to do a fairly brief update here, but there are a few new updates on his blog at sketchytravels.com

After Vienna, he moved on to Prague (Czech Republic), Krakow and Auschwitz (Poland), Budapest (Hungary) and then on to Belgrade (Serbia). He will be in Belgrade staying at a hostel where he was hired to visit area museums and other places visitors will want to see and to write reviews/advertising type info that the hostel can use to promote these locations to their guests. He will also be working at the front desk and as a bartender at the hostel so he is pretty excited. He is getting paid for visiting the places he wants to see and can talk to people about their experiences while working at the hostel to make his reviews more applicable to what the guests express a desire to see. He will be there at least six weeks. Free room and meals while he is there plus getting paid...it's a win! He also has found a freelance writing job online doing a blog for someone else, and is making some extra money doing that to cover some of his expenses and stretch his savings.

Auschwitz was a rather sobering experience, and arriving via train on a foggy day made it rather somber. These are a couple of photos that I thought captured the feeling rather well.

One of his favorite pictures from Prague. He enjoyed seeing this guy playing and singing on the street. As a sax player when he was in band, he had an appreciation for this one.

And a drawing done for one of his hosts.

A couple of sketches from Hungary....one done from a picture he liked in a museum and one other.

.

and one from Belgrade.

There are many more photos on his facebook page https://www.facebook.com/sketchytravels/ and in his blog linked above.

One of the best updates was this one:

After spending the past few days worrying about fines/Schengen ban (I was overstaying my visa), I finally left and am now in Belgrade, Serbia after what was the most anticlimactic border crossing.Luckily there were others on the train who were completely illegal (no passport at all), so they weren't focusing on counting dates between my stamps

I was hoping he wasn't going to end up getting fined/deported or end up in some Hungarian jail! He was a bit concerned after reading about how they were tightening things up at the borders, but it all worked out okay and he is safely in Serbia now.

 

[Sylvain]

Thanks for the update Mom!

 

[Kutnupe14]

His talent is exceptional.

 

[mom45]

His talent is exceptional.

Thanks. I see improvement in his work on an ongoing basis...he has a natural talent but he is definitely improving his skills all the time.

I am going to do a photobook of his drawings and photos for my parents' Christmas gift. I may have to do one for myself at the same time. I'm thinking I should do one every 3 months while he is on this trip. I plan to put excerpts from his blog into it as well to document where the photos were taken and some highlights of his trip.

I'll try to do better with the updates, French dude! While he is in Belgrade, he has free wifi at the hostel so that should help at least for the next six weeks.

 

[mom45]

I haven't had many updates. He has been feeling a bit under the weather the past few days. He is staying at the Fair and Square Hostel in Belgrade for about 6 weeks. He is working on writing some tour guides for them so they are PAYING him to visit museums and such and do write ups that they can share with their guests. He is also working at their business as a bartender and receptionist/front desk person in exchange for a bed and meals. Here he is doing some of his finest work with chalk on their wall and the finished product. He started out using sidewalk chalk.

I am anxiously waiting for the photobooks to be delivered. I spent all of last Saturday creating a book for my parents and had to order one for myself as well. Since don't have the internet, I ordered a book for them (titled it Volume One, the First 100 Days) and plan to create a binder for them with his blog posts. As he posts new ones, I will print them and mail them so they can be added to the binder and they can also follow along on his journey. My plan now is to order a book every three months with the next phase of his trip. He is also working on some genealogy while in Serbia since that is where my dad's family came from. He may end up staying there longer than six weeks.

 

[mom45]

Went out to the mailbox and voila...photobooks arrived!!! I had never ordered one before and there were many sites to pick from. I ended up getting 11x14 lay flat books from Snapfish as they were 70% off. I am quite happy with the quality and would recommend them to anyone interested in ordering these books. Very nice quality and only took a week to print and deliver.