Share a story about the furthest you’ve ever traveled from home.
When I was 11 years old, my family went on a bus tour of Europe, and it was on that tour that I would travel the farthest away from home I’d ever been or would go. 9073 miles or 14,601.58 kilometers away from home, to be exact.
We started the trip by flying to London, England from Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada ,where we spent a few days sightseeing before we boarded the bus that would take us to mainland Europe. We woke up at 4 am. to have breakfast at 430,and board the bus by 5 a.m.,and we were off on our way . The bus was half full of Canadian passengers and half full of American passengers. By the time we got to Rome, Italy, I was already tired of traveling by a bus that was half full of loud Americans who were complaining at every turn .I was thrilled to finally get off the bus and spend a few hours sightseeing with my family. I didn’t expect the old Italian men pinching my 11 year old bottom black and blue, nor did I expect to aquire a lifelong phobia.
We were in a famous square, I can’t recall the name, and my father had his video camera with him. In 1976, video cameras were big, bulky, and heavy. He noticed that there were birds perched on the many statues of the square and had the bright idea to send his daughter to the middle of the square with a handful of birdseed and instruct her to throw the birdseed into the air so he could get a shot on video of the birds all flying to get the seeds. At this point, it should be noted that I wore thick glasses and was not athletic in the least. So I threw the birdseed into the air. Unfortunately, I threw it straight up, and as it rained down on top of me, so did all of the apparently ravenous pigeons . It was like a scene from Hitchcock himself. And that is my story about the farthest away from home I’ve ever traveled.
What is the phobia ,you ask. From that moment on, I’ve had ornithaphobia or a deathly fear of birds.