Hi, this is Sandy Gamsoy for Trekking the Planet.
This week we're in Bamberg, Germany, and we have two special guests with us.
Our daughters, Lauren, who's 21, and Kristen, who's 19.
They came over a couple days ago from the U.S., and they're traveling around Germany,
but are spending a few days now with us.
We haven't actually seen them for almost seven months, and we thought it'd be interesting
to just sit and have a little discussion with them and film it so people could hear
more about them and just about our trip and how travel has affected them as they've been
growing up.
So, Lauren and Kristen, when we were a little younger, we took you guys on a trip.
You were 10, and you were 12 slash 13, and we called it Cosmos.
It lasted four and a half months.
We went to five continents and went to India for a month, Africa for a month, South Australia,
Southeast Asia.
So, Lauren, we'll start with you.
So, how did that trip affect you, or what did you think about that trip, how did it
affect you going forward?
I feel like I was a lot more confident after that trip.
It taught me, like, I did a lot of the school stuff on my own, slash everything on my own,
I think.
And so, I guess it helped me for school in that way, even though it's hard to learn
some of the stuff.
And I think it got me interested in, like, third-world countries, which is really associated
with my major now, and especially with Africa, which I've gone back to three times since
then, and want to work there as my career now.
So, just for the record, what are you going to school, what are you majoring in?
I'm going to UCLA.
I'm going to be a senior majoring in international development studies.
So, it's basically a study of the development world, such as Africa and India, and Southeast
Asia, which are places we visited on the trip.
And Kristen, you were a little younger on that trip, so I think it was a little harder
for you.
Yes, it was.
So, how do you think that trip has sort of shaped you in going forward, or do you see
an effect on that kind of travel?
Even though I was so young on that trip, I feel like it still really had great impacts
on my life, and I still remember a lot of the things that we did.
And also, I think it made me just really appreciate the things that we had at home, and it also
sent me apart from a lot of my classmates, because it just gave me a great appreciation
of the world that a lot of people my age lack, so.
And then, you're just, for the record, with...
I am going to be a sophomore at UCI this next fall, and I'm studying German.
German...
German studies.
German studies.
German studies.
No language, as well as other parts of German history and culture.
So, we took you guys a lot of places when you were little.
You've both been to over 30 countries.
Do you guys know how many?
32, when we go to Slovenia.
Yeah, 31 when we go to Slovenia.
And so, in six continents.
And so, I think the first trip we took you guys on, I think Lauren was maybe four or
five, and Kristen was two, so you've pretty much grown up going overseas and traveling
a lot.
Is there any special trips you remember that were interesting from a good or a bad standpoint?
Anything interesting there?
Do you have something?
Well, I remember when we went backpacking in Europe when we were kids, and we stayed
in hostels, and we carried all of our own luggage on our back.
And that was the first time I'd ever been to Europe, and I feel like one of the first
countries that we went to was Germany.
But I feel like that kind of just started the relationship I've had with the German
culture and so on.
But also the fact that we were so young and we were traveling around, walking in the
rain with our backpacks on our backs.
I remember that very vividly to this day, and I just remember that being the down-to-earth
type traveling that none of my friends have ever experienced.
Okay, so that's a good memory.
How about you, Lauren?
Can you think of anything?
Well, I think that like, the Cosmoship was the most important for me.
Just being in Africa and India, kind of like the same thing, having a really kind of hard
but rewarding experience and learning a lot about people who are a lot less fortunate
than we are.
But seeing how they live and getting to know their culture was like, like I said, one of
the first steps for me in getting really interested and deciding to major in learning about this
country is.
Okay.
So how about this trip that Dad and I are taking, Darren and I are taking?
How do you feel about that?
I mean, what was your sort of reaction when you heard about it and when you first heard
we were going to be gone for over a year?
Well, I remember when you first told me about it and I just remember being like, oh well,
I remember saying to myself, oh, I knew that this was coming, like it's here, finally.
Because after we went on Cosmos, I knew that that wasn't going to be, that was probably
going to be the last trip that the four of us went on together, but that was definitely
not the last trip that you and Dad were going to do.
But I never expected that it was going to be this long over such a span of so many countries.
But I remember thinking like, oh, they're doing it to raise awareness for geography,
and that's the most important thing.
And when I heard that you guys were doing that, I was like, okay, this is an important
trip that they have to go on.
I was in full support of it.
Thanks.
And it's been hard for you, though, because especially your first year in college, and
your first year in fame.
I survived.
You survived.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And what about you, Lauren?
I was just going to find out.
Yes.
I happened to see you before I saw Kristen.
Yeah.
But I mean, I don't know.
I mean, I knew you guys were going to do something like this, eventually, also.
So I was just like, okay, go for it.
So what about when you guys have kids, what kind of travel experiences would you want
to have with them?
Or do you think it's important to have that with kids?
Yeah, definitely.
And I feel like you get to know each other and the family better too by spending time
together.
It doesn't have to be overseas.
It could be anything.
Right.
But just locations in general.
It's not time that we spend with each other in stressful situations, in very relaxed
situations.
I feel like I know you three other people better than I know anyone else.
And because of that, I feel like I appreciate our family more.
Yeah.
Good.
And you got that brought us together then?
Sometimes it brought us apart, but it always brought us back together.
Shared crisis.
Yeah, shared crisis.
Yeah, exactly.
I definitely want to take my kids traveling, maybe not to every single place we've been,
and maybe different places that we haven't even been to at all yet, but just to show
them how the world is.
How about for us?
Do you have any questions for us?
I know you've been following us on our journey.
You get the newsletters like everybody else.
So is there any questions that you've been dying to ask, but just haven't yet?
Well, I've wanted to know where your favorite place has been.
I know that you guys say that you like every place, but you guys have been gone for a half
year trip now.
So what's the one or two places that have stood out so far?
Well, we just went to Krakow and Poland, which was wonderful.
And kind of the criteria we've been using is that, what do we want to go back to?
Maybe for an extended period, for a month or more, and yeah, Krakow seemed like a real
city.
It's got a lot of culture there.
It's a real city in the sense that, yes, there's a lot of tourism there, but there's
a real city that's right next to that culture and lots of history there, and it's not very
expensive.
So we could actually stay there for a reasonably good price.
Hobart, Australia was another one.
Tasmania was amazing place.
Just all of Tasmania.
Right.
Just an amazing place.
Really beautiful city.
Obviously, lots to do there and lots of nature, lots of hiking, lots of meet opportunities.
I think another one we really liked was in Latvia, Riga, the first place we stopped
at in Latvia, really beautiful city as well.
We were very pleasantly surprised.
Again, a real walkable place, lots of really nice neighborhoods.
So yeah, there's been several places that we really liked.
It makes very pleasant surprises, but so great about travel.
I was going to say, those were places that we weren't really expecting.
We had no idea.
So yeah, absolutely.
How about any question for us, Laura?
Yeah, like what's your, or what's a place that you're really looking forward to going?
Oh, still?
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
That's a really good question.
I think that Eastern Europe will be interesting.
The rest of Eastern Europe, we're going to, I think Romania, I've read a lot about.
We're going to three places there.
I think that'll be very, very interesting.
Now we're going to Kenya, we've just announced our itinerary change, and I think that's going
to be interesting as well as some places we've always wanted to go to.
I think going out so far there and meeting some of the people culturally will be really
good too.
You've actually been there.
Yeah.
We haven't.
So that'll be good.
There's some really interesting things planned in South America.
So I'm looking forward to being in the Amazon rainforest.
We're going to be more than a thousand miles up the Amazon in a really remote place.
And we're just now doing the planning for that.
But it's exciting.
It's really exciting.
And I'd love the work that they're going to be doing there, which is more sustainable
development within the forest so that people can live in harmony within the rainforest
and not be cutting it down.
So we definitely want to support that.
Okay.
Great.
Well, I think that probably is about wraps it up.
So thanks a lot guys for doing this interview with us and it's been great to see you.
And we'll keep in touch.
And thanks everyone for watching this.
Thanks.
Thank you guys so much for watching this interview with us and we'll see you in the next one.
Bye.
Bye.
