#unicornchallenge – July 24, 2024
The blonde girl, with the brunette girl, were nervous, standing in the airport waiting to board their plane to Europe. Each was only 19 years old. Their parents were sending them to Europe for two months with an American tour group. Both girls were in college,back in 1971, and scared of the new experience but excited at the same time.
First stop, Paris. They were taken by taxis to the innermost parts of Paris where the streets were narrow and crowded. They pulled up to an old building. Looking at the building, they couldn’t believe it was their hotel. It looked old and rundown. Their rooms were adequate, according to their American standards, although they soon found out they had to share a bathroom with an entire floor. There was no running hot water, It didn’t matter. The hotel had character and Paris was so exciting.
They wound their way through Europe by train. Some hotels in the big cities were more contemporary, some less.
One of their last stops was Oslo, Norway. The leaders of the tour group seemed disturbed when they arrived at their hotel in a very old section of the city. Later, they would find out their hotel was in the red-light district of Oslo.
After the girls arrived home in America, they knew they had been on one of the valuable trips of their lives. Many years later, they spoke of how that trip was the best gift their parents could have given them.
Thank you to C.E. Ayrs and Jenne Gray for hosting the #unicornchallenge!
The Write Scribe 
Memories, Rosemary, or wishful thinking?
I guess much of Europe is quite strange to young Americans!
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All memories! Wonderful memories and that beautiful hotel in the prompt reminded me of all the hotels we stayed in that summer as young women. The two of us still often speak on how that trip gave us a world view that we otherwise would not have had having grown up in middle America in a very sheltered way. We didn’t find Europe as strange as we found our freedom there and we experienced a different lifestyle that I still prefer. Later in life, I spent a year in Portugal teaching at the University of Porto. One of the best years of my life and if I could immigrate now, my destination would be Portugal.
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I remember that feeling, Rosemary: ‘scared of the new experience but excited at the same time’.
It was in mainand Europe too – and, of course, Paris!
Actually, your story reminds me of several American girls I met when I was living in an international student residence in Paris.
Their parents had sent them over for a couple of months, and they were determined to enjoy it!
You describe one of the great things that we can surely all relate too – the dangerous places we have escaped from, unscathed, in our innocent ignorance.
I enjoyed this ‘coming of age’ story.
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Thank you so much, Jenne. An insight on this story. All these many years later, that brunette girl and I are still good friends. We often speak of our trip when we were 19, even though we’ve both been back to Europe many times since. We were young and innocent at 19 and both of us feel like one of the best gifts our parents ever gave us was to send us to Europe that summer. We had grown up very protected and that trip gave us a perspective on the world that we would not have gained otherwise. Both of us feel it was instrumental in molding the people we became. The beautiful hotel in the prompt reminded me of all those beautiful old hotels where we learned so much in Europe.
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Many of us could relate to these emotions, travelling with a school group. Such memories. Well done.
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Thank you so much!
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RM, it seems many had the same question: “Are these your memories?”
I immediately thought you were the blonde haired girl! It was great fun reliving my own memories of traveling through Europe. Having to share a bathroom with all the people on the same floor is quite an eye-opener, isn’t it!
A fun, nostalgic read, RM.
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Nancy, these are my memories and I was the blonde girl. I had to skip from Paris to Oslo in the story, but oh my, the places and memories in between!
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Every young person should travel. Your story bears that out.
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