02/20/2025
I passed by a beautiful town today and couldn’t help but to admire the beautiful architecture in Europe. This town, in particular, reminded me of so many towns across the Mediterranean—from Spain to France—with stone cathedrals and cobblestone street, cut through by walled rivers with arched bridges. I especially loved the flamboyant-gothic cathedral in this medieval town. Oh Europe, what beautiful sights you have!
I’ll tell you a little secret. For a long time I didn’t think much of Europe. From childhood I was always fascinated by the Far East. And when I left my career and began my “early retirement,” I suddenly had all this free time to travel around the world.I chose to stay away from Europe. At the time, I rationalized this behavior by saying that I was traveling to ‘learn and grow’ and that the only way for me to grows was to be put in an uncomfortable situation. Thus, I stayed away from what I thought was a continent, ie Europe, that, I believed, had little to offer me in new experiences from what I had already experienced living in the United States. Oh, how wrong I was! Nevertheless, I spent years traveling around the world; first to Latin America, then Eastern Europe, and finally, South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia. Of course, did find many opportunities to grow in all these places, but I stayed away from Europe. Then suddenly, by no choice of my own, I was trust into Europe. It was 2021 and the world was just beginning to open up after the pandemic. At the time, I had decided that I was going to cycle across Japan and raise money for a charity. Unfortunately, with time fast approaching, Japan remained closed. In fact, most of the world remained closed. But I was determined to go on my ride and raise money. So I looked at the world map and discovered that only two places were open at the time: the USA and Europe. Well, I had already cycled across the USA back in 2016 (single-gear, 7,000km) so Europe would have to do. Thank god for that because if the world was open to travel I might never have gotten to Europe. And here is the lesson I learned: I was wrong to think that there was nothing significantly different in Europe from what I experienced living in the USA. I had, ignorantly, thought all western civilization was the same and that there was nothing new to learn in Europe. But in my 11 months, cycling 11,000km through 24 European countries, I became aware of all of Europes incredible history and diversity. To think I had equated all the cultures of Europe as not being significantly different than that of the USA! Maybe Western Europe has some similarities. But what about the different languages, history and traditions in Western Europe? And I was mistaken to compare the rich cultures and beautiful nature of Mediterranean Europe to the USA. Eastern Europe, from the Balkans to the Baltics, was even more distinct, its people beautiful, with almost no connection with anything i experienced living in the USA. Northern Europes political-economic systems have no resemblance to the USA neither. All this is to say that I was wrong about my assumptions about Europe being just like the USA because both were part of Western Civilization. But I’m also grateful. Grateful that I got to experience all those because cultures of Europe then and now again—because it has made me a better person.
And just look at that architecture!
[Photo taken in Bloise-Vienne, France]
