Passport Stories: Europe, the Caribbean & the Journeys That Shaped Me

Daphne, host of a travel podcast, shares her journey from aspiring radio broadcaster to experienced world traveler with a passion for engaging with people. She discusses her travel experiences, including tropical vacations in the Caribbean and exploring Europe. Daphne recalls poignant moments, such as visiting historical sites like Dachau and Rome, and enjoying memorable meals and experiences with locals. She plans to share more travel stories and insights through her podcast, inspiring others to explore new destinations. Hi, welcome to Travel Talk Show. My name is Daphne and I will be your host today and I will be speaking about some things personal that I've done on some of my travels. Lately we've been plugging in a bunch of different types of podcasts and filling you in on certain areas and events and global destinations for all ages. Today I just wanted to break it down a little bit on my behalf of what my background is and how I got to where I am today taking on this travel podcast side hustle if you want to call it that. So it stems back from when I was younger and had aspirations to be a radio broadcaster but then I found out how much she made and I was like, well I guess I won't be going down that road. So I've had a long varied road career wise but I do have a travel agent license. I've had various business that were engaged in the travel industry so I have about 25 years of travel experience as a professional business owner and of course personally I love to travel. It's one of my passions and I've traveled many different countries, hope to do more but currently I am working in a corporate environment and I am nearing my retirement age. So at this point in my life I am starting to see that perhaps more of my passions should be experienced while I have time and travel is a great fit for me because it'll be something I'll be able to do at any age and talking and podcasting and engaging with my audience, sharing our experiences and learning from one another is something else that I really would like to do. Some of the plans that I do have is I have several friends and professionals out in the field that have amazing travel experiences and I want to bring them on here to chat with me and for them to share their experiences and make those kinds of connections with everyone to bring more awareness to something maybe you've never thought of before, never thought to travel but when you hear their stories it'll pique your interest and you'll definitely want to look into it and perhaps maybe even book your next trip to there. So that is kind of one of the reasons why I'm into all this is because I like the podcasting side, I love the travel side but I also like engaging with people and being social and sometimes you can't always do that when you're working a full-time position and living a life that doesn't allow you to do more things so I'm hoping to get to that eventually. But enough about me, more about probably where I've traveled to and what some of my favorites are. I can honestly say I think one of my favorite things to do is tropical vacation. I have gone to the Caribbean more times than I can count right now, I've been to Jamaica, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands and several times to the Bahamas actually but I think I'm going to start exploring more islands over there. I love the climate, the water is more still, it's not too wavy, it's always warm, the Caribbean is always consistently 70s to 80s so it doesn't get too much hotter and it doesn't get colder so it's very consistent. It rarely rains unless you get into the rainy seasons where the hurricanes come through but again depending on where you go in the Caribbean you may not have to worry about those. But always watch the key times which is usually June to September, those are the worst times to travel in the Caribbean as far as the hurricane problems can be. Definitely get insurance and all that good stuff so you don't get caught with tickets and fees that you can't get refunds for but always look for those kinds of things. Another thing that I love to do is go places where I can walk to everything within a distance of where I'm staying. So for example, Europe is great for that and you get your steps in no problem. One of my first trips over to Europe was back in 95 and I was a lot younger then so we went over there and I did Amsterdam, I did Germany, I did Italy, France, Belgium, that particular trip back in 95 that was the 50th year anniversary celebrations of the end of the World War II. I'm a big World War II person, like I love any story, like the Anne Frank story, I went to her house in Amsterdam, I was in Berlin for the last day of the war anniversary which was just absolutely mind blowing. I did have a little episode there where we were on an underground train and we were trying to go to and from our hospital and there were skinheads, I don't know what your PC terms would be called today but there were Nazi skinheads at that point in time and they were not happy that there was going to be demonstrations the next day from them because they were actually celebrating the last day of the war which of course for them was not a good thing back in the day when Hitler was their leader and all that kind of stuff. So I've done so much history research and readings and it was just fascinating to be there but we saw these skinheads at the train station going back to our hospital, it was late at night, kind of a dumb thing to do but fortunately the friend that I was with knew German and they were speaking and fortunately we were blonde and blue eyed so I guess they were saying, oh they look afraid of us but they don't have anything to worry about, haha, they made some other comments I guess but my friend knew what they were saying and we felt a little better getting back on the train to go back to our hospital. It was pretty neat there, just sitting there near by the border where the west and east side of Berlin had been in check point Charlie and all that, oh my gosh, it was just a very unique experience for me. We went to Munich next and there is where I visited Dachau, D-A-C-H-A-U, it was one of the only concentration camps that never actually got to use the gas chambers. Her father being a World War II survivor himself and living in a, I think a 10 by 10 room she said, for like 5 years with 2 or 3 families, it's crazy the stories I've heard and that's why it was kind of a special trip because we were doing that and she was curious to see more about what her father, that whole story. So it made the whole trip just that much more impactful, it was just a very unique experience, I can't describe Dachau, I guess you just have to go there to experience it because it's very sobering is the only words I can use, they show you a film there at the beginning and when you're watching it, yeah, it's just a little tough to watch because it brings it to the real, like how horrific those concentration camps were back in those days where World War II and the atrocities that they did to these poor people, it just makes you grateful that you were born in a time and place in history where you didn't have to experience that yourself or it's just very humbling, that's I guess the best way I can put it and then we went on to Rome and got caught in a train strip and just made it back and down into Rome in time before we would be able to, so we stayed there for 5 days and I'll say this, Rome is probably in my top 3 ever that I've ever visited, I plan to go back there someday because there's a lot of stuff I didn't get to do because there's just so much to see and do in Rome, there's so much history and I just learned so much about before BC, right, like before Christ was even born, there's ancient bath tiles, bath houses there and you're standing there on top of this tile and you're looking down and you're going how is this even possible that something that old still exists but it's not intact fully like a room or a total shelter but it's just like on the ground where you can see these tiles and things all around you but you can still envision what it must have been like back in the day with the Romans walking around and all the things that they encountered, seeing the Colosseum, the Vatican, St. Peter's Cathedral, the food, mind blowing, we probably back in those days in 95 we didn't have step counters and all that but I can assure you we probably were walking every bit of 20 to 30,000 steps a day and we were young like I think I was 22 at that time and at that time we just kept walking and walking and then we would stop and get gelato, we would eat gross amounts of high calorie foods whether they were some there was a sandwich of some sort and it had like cream cheese and I think it was avocados back then I don't know for somebody I'm from Canada so avocados to me in my childhood were not a thing so that was probably the first time I ever ate one and I don't even know what's in that amazing concoction of a sandwich but I think her and I went back a couple times a day and got those sandwiches, the wine I remember in Verona was the first time I really drank wine to appreciate it and we were staying in a hostel there in Verona and we were with a group of other people that were staying there at the time and that night they served us the people that owned the hostel and had some kind of a dish that was like a tuna pasta some kind of a real light sauce to it and then like homemade bread, red wine I'm sure there was a salad or some kind of like pickle dish that went with it but all I can remember is every bite was just you could you can't even that's probably the best meal I've ever had like period I've eaten a lot of places since then and I don't know if that's because I had walked a lot that day and we were super hungry and it was such a different type of meal than I'm used to like the tuna had peas in it and it was just so different from anything I've ever eaten before it's so fulfilling and tasted so amazing like it was just unbelievable and we drank the wine that night and we met some cool people and it was just such a lovely atmosphere it just really made the whole experience that much better um definitely love that and then we ended up in the south of France and we ended up being there when the Cannes Film Festival was going on we just happened to stumble on it we hit every possible perfect set of dates that you could the whole way and it wasn't even on purpose we just it was just by coincidence really um like the earlier stuff with Amsterdam and Berlin we knew that the end of the day the war and all that was going to happen so we wanted to make sure we were part of those festivities it was cool in Amsterdam when the Queen Elizabeth was alive back in 95 she was there at the same time we were we didn't get to see her but we stood in Dom Square during the moment of silence that day when they when uh Holland celebrated the last day of the war anniversary for themselves or I think when they were liberated I think it might have been like May 4th or 5th something like that um and everybody stopped we didn't know what was going on at first and then somebody said something about a moment of silence for all those that were involved in that and it was pretty pretty powerful pretty powerful um so back to the south of France we noticed um there's little towns along the way Antibes Nice and to Cannes we did all those we were staying at a hostel the one thing I remember about south of France that I thought was really unique was every time you went to a public restroom bathroom whatever you want to call it you had to figure out how to flush the darn toilet like it was a challenge to figure out okay so so where's the lever like how do I flush this thing or even how do I go I remember walking in on one beach and there was a public restroom whatever um I'm walking in and there was a hole a hole in the floor and two feet marker kind of things and I was like you've got to be kidding me so you like basically had to stand on these two feet markers with the hole and hope you could aim I it was insane um and then that was amazing we met a lot of really great people at that hostel when we stayed there in the south of France that was also pretty cool um and I remember with the red carpets and the Cannes Film Festival going on we walked nearby but you couldn't get really close but I remember seeing the red carpets and we ate at some like a McDonald's fast foodie type place nearby and thinking like this is back in 95 it was like 20 or 30 dollars just for a meal per one person and it was pretty pricey that was probably the most we spent the whole trip um but we were hungry that day and that was the only thing within distance that seemed like it would fit our budget um we were backpacking and that was the other thing about the hostel in the south of France um it's so funny uh so by this point in my trip I'm like week two I think uh going into three uh I had to go up to we went to Paris and then back to Amsterdam and I was going to fly back home and my back my backpack was getting pretty packed full of stuff because I was buying a lot of gifts and just trinkets and stuff that you always do when you're on vacation but I kind of forgot like I only had the one backpack and that was all I had so I was getting rid of things at the hostel like extra old sweatshirts and stuff that I didn't want to pack around anymore so I can make more room in my bag for my next two stops and I remember being in the hostel room I had extra Canadian patches on me and there was a couple of American girls there and they traded things with me so they could get a Canadian patch and put it on their things they were having a horrible time getting good service at the train station in France and I was just really surprised to hear that uh you learn so much about the world and its views and how other countries view other countries and I know right now is a contentious time but uh back then even it was just really it made you realize that the there's a big world out there and everybody knows what's going on and I can't even imagine I bet today it's that much more with the internet and everything because we did not have that back in 95 at all we didn't have cell phones we didn't have social media none of that which uh I think I'm kind of thankful for but anyway um so that was interesting to unload some things especially the Canadian patches but I had brought extras because I had heard that that was something that might happen it might be a good engaging conversation definitely was that's for sure um so after that we headed on this ice train up to it's called ice train I'm pretty sure one of the fastest trains you can take in Europe and um it took us up to Paris and we were in Paris for a few days and that was amazing did the Louvre I mean just did all the sites the Eiffel Tower oh there's just so many uh what's his name the doors uh singer and guy that died there in Paris uh Jimmy Morrison we went to his grave site um that took a little bit to find but once we found it we we spent a lot of time there it was pretty cool I mean the whole city it's just Paris is such a unique city and it is everything you would think it would be when you see all the movies and read all the books or see the news or whatever Paris is 100% everything you would think it would be that's what I remember thinking when I was there it's just yes this is exactly how I figured it would be and just going into churches like the Notre Dame and I mean I think it's been uh redone since I've been there but when I was there it was just incredible to me the churches and the castles over there are just when you you live in North America you don't have the same the same stuff at all because we're in newer countries but over there they've got churches and castles and things that have been there for hundreds of years and it just blows my mind at how well they keep them up they do treasure their older things they don't have all the strip malls and big like Costco's or anything like that over there and I think that's a good thing and it's so nice to see it and travel in places where it's unique and small townish and you can engage with the locals and it's not the rat race it just truly is unique over there in Europe for sure all the countries that I went to they the people are so kind and helpful and you know they all have their quirks like Italians are certainly Germans are certainly the French are certainly a hundred percent but if you know what you're getting yourself into and the type of culture and people you can adjust yourself accordingly and respect the country that you're in and just know that you have to be self-aware and know what you're saying and doing um that's huge like in Italy being blonde single women we were definitely cat called by the men and so we just started wearing hats and tucking our blonde hair under and trying not to wear clothes that were too revealing or anything because it's just kind of a thing right uh but you just have to put up with it it is you're not going to change the culture and people and just be respectful wherever you are because they're not always going to see things the way we see things or you can't expect them to service you if that makes sense um like in France if you talk French to them first they would appreciate the fact that you were trying but if your French sucked like mine they would answer back in English um but I always seem to be with people that knew French really well and they would speak French and the French would continue speaking French with them it was kind of annoying but uh kind of funny too um so Paris was wonderful uh all I can remember about Paris that trip was wanting to go get coffee and croissants and bread every minute I could because it was just to die for the bread would just melt in your mouth in your mouth and the coffee was unbelievable like I just asked there's no words to describe it um then went back to Amsterdam and then I flew home and that was an adventure too holy cow the travel agent booked me the wrong ticket home and this is again back in the day before we had internet and all that so this was my first real trip as an adult myself and I didn't know what to look for had no clue and they had booked me to Oakland California not back to Edmonton where I was flying back I was supposed to be flying back to it was just really weird actually wait let me think about this for a second I said that wrong so I missed my flight because she put the wrong time on it so they were trying to get me home anyway and flew me to Oakland California without telling me that that's where I was going and then when I discovered it I still had to figure out a way to get from Oakland back up to Canada and that was a long flight I think that was like I want to say a 10 hour flight eight hour flight and it was in a smoking plane this is before they had me on smoking completely and I sat beside this old man and let's just say it was not a pleasant flight plus I was panicked because I had to go back to work the next day didn't really have time to be late because I'd already been gone for three weeks at this point so that was that was a disaster but it ended up pretty good so this is what ended up happening I got on the ground in Oakland California and this was when it was a good thing that I only had a backpack and they put me in because their life screwed up they should have flown me all the way back to Edmonton but they didn't and so they put me in a limo got me over to San Francisco got me on another plane in San Francisco and then San Francisco up to Edmonton so that's how I got home I think it was like 23 hours later by the time I got all the way home but in the meantime my mom and my friend's mother were back home talking because my friend was with me when I went to the airport she was staying there longer in Europe and when we realized I had missed my flight and everything she had to call home for me as I was getting put into the next flight and had to get going yeah we didn't have cell phones we didn't have emails none of that there was no and I had no time I had to get on the plane or else I was going to miss that one so she had to figure out how to get the word back to my mother and oh what a nightmare my mom knew where I was going before I did because each time I got to the next stop like going to Oakland they had figured it out already but I didn't know that the girls in the air were saying oh we don't know you know I don't really remember much because I was so distraught like I had no idea what what was happening um yeah and then when I got back to Edmonton I was just I just remember being picked up and just being so exhausted and the jet lag was real that's a thing anyway um so there's my first real dive in my experiences I just thought the Europe one would be a good place to start uh if you're thinking about going to Europe I would totally recommend it I've been back twice since then um one trip with my younger sister who was dating a German at the time and I went back to the friend that I did go to Europe with the first time and she ended up moving over there and getting married so I went back with the younger sister to that friend's wedding in Germany and it was just a really neat experience and then we hit London on the way back and then flew home but uh it was just I'll do that that trip the next time because there was some cool stuff that happened in that one and then the third time I went to Europe I was visiting younger sister who married the German and was living in Germany and they were living near uh Stuttgart and I took my older sister with me this time and that's a whole other trips and stories we uh three sisters uh traveled together over to Munich and Austria and went back to Paris and there's some good adventure talks in there as well so maybe I'll get my two sisters on and we can reminisce about that certain uh trip I'm sure my older sister will have some words to say about that but anywho uh yeah so three times I've been to Europe and it's definitely not my last time I'm definitely going back because there's just too much to see and do over there Greece is on my list Spain is on my list Norway is on my list I would like to do Scotland and Ireland that's what I want to do next well I should wrap this up I've kept you on here for nearly 30 minutes I just thought it would be great to just do an honest uh get to know me better and I will do some more sessions here soon with other guests um friends and family and other influences uh hopefully soon um talking about their experiences and cool places they've been and sharing these things with you so you have something to listen to and learn some fun stuff along the way and maybe be entertained a bit by some of the antics of some of these people that I know and and just keep it interesting for us all so thank you very much for joining us today on travel talk show I will see you next time thank you and have fun