Backpacking in Europe - How a dream, an idea, a close call, and some mushrooms changed my life forever - Part 1) A dream

Hi Steemers! In 2007 I took a vacation to Europe that changed me as a person forever. It became a pivotal point in my life. This was definitely one of the most interesting experiences of my life. I've never blogged about it before or blogged at all for that matter, but I've decided to share the story on Steemit!

Here goes:

Part 1) A Dream

After months of planning with my two best friends, I was realizing that maybe I wasn't going to get to go to Amsterdam after all. "Wait a minute, fuck that... I'm going if I have to go by myself.", I thought. My friends and I had talked about saving money, applying for passports, and lots of details about everything we were going to do and experience, but now just a few short weeks before the trip, I realized that neither of my friends had saved money or even applied for their passport. I had both already. I applied for my passport months earlier and had been living with my parents while I worked at a textile factory, so I already had the money saved up as well.

I had dropped out of college and gone back home to figure out what I was going to do. I hadn't planned on going home, but I called my dad after I dropped all my classes and quite my job and he asked me to come home to help him work on a project. I didn't want to but he convinced me, so it ended up that my parents took me in while I was figuring out what to do. I felt like a loser having failed at college and come home. I hadn't actually failed in school. I was in good standing, but I just decided to drop all my classes one day and leave school. I had become immensely unhappy with my life. I had friends and partied a lot, but the drugs were probably one of the reasons, I just felt pessimistic and always seemed to be having an existential crisis. I didn't like what I was doing, at all. I was going to college because that is what I thought I was supposed to do after high school. I was studying business because it was easy and I had to pick something after being undeclared as long as possible. I was just existing and it was pretty pathetic.

I had stopped using all the drugs and even completely quit drinking when I cam home. I knew that was a huge part of my depression and I agreed that I would abstain as long as I lived there. I hadn't had so much as a drink for an entire year. During that year, I went from completely miserable to slowly starting to get natural good feelings in my body again, but not until after a few months of being clean and starting to go outside and exercise and starting again to do some creative work, writing and drawing, did I get these feelings. I was also starting to become passionate about the project I was working on with my father. We were producing probiotics at a time when they were just becoming known about in the U.S. I was finally busy again because all of this was on top of the job I had taken at the textile mill after I had detoxed from the harder stuff.

One day, after a year of trying to make a business out of the probiotics my father was making, we made the front page of a local newspaper. That day we sold more probiotics, on the website that I had made, than we had every day up until that day combined. I felt like my efforts were finally paying off and I was starting to get back to my old, confident, happy go-lucky self. That night I decided to go out and celebrate. I ended up drinking some beer and smoking a little weed. That was all it took. I remembered how much I enjoyed smoking weed and I started smoking it with my friends again regularly. That was when we started planning the trip.

Fast forward a few months. My mother, oldest sister, and niece (whose almost my age) are planning a trip to Italy. I still have my money and my passport for my Amsterdam trip, so I decide to go to Italy with them and then to Germany and the Netherlands by myself! I had always wanted to go to Germany because my last name is German and I wanted to go to the place were my ancestors came from. Today, in what used to be the heart of the Hessian part of Germany, is the metropolis of Frankfurt. I had learned from my father, that the first Crill had come from that area during the revolutionary war as a mercenary soldier, paid by the British to fight against Americans. I was almost uncontainably excited to visit 3 new countries, including the land of my ancestors and the land of legal cannabis! I bought a 3 country Eurorail pass for Switzerland (because it was in between Itay and Germany), Germany, and Benelux, which includes Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg. I also had all my hostels booked for Germany and Netherlands part of my trip. After Italy, I would be going to Munich, Frankfurt, Noordwijk (on the beach, 45 minutes North of Amsterdam) and Amsterdam!

Italy was amazing. I was not prepared to behold the Sisteen Chapel in the Vatican Museum. I sat in the chapel for a while, staring up at the ceiling with a surreal feeling, thinking about the history and witnessing, firsthand, the beauty. I'm not sure what was more impressive - The Colosseum, or the canals of venice, but we saw that and much more in a week and it was incredible. We also went to the Italian vacation town of Cinque Terre. which is actually 5 towns lined along the beautiful coast. We hiked up through each town one day, but it was the night before that day of hiking, that I had one of the most vivid dreams in my life!

I was in a canoe, in a primitive land, in a raging river, with no paddle. I've always wanted to go white water rafting, but this was not enjoyable. I was scared. It was all I could do to stay in the boat. I was going extremely fast and the tumultuous water seemed to be crashing everywhere. I could hardly even see where I was going. I notice just in time that I'm heading for a waterfall where the the entire river is falling and crashing down into a cave. At the last second, I jump out of my canoe just as it flies off of the edge. As I jump, I let out a beast of a scream, as I put everything I have into my jump and my scream. I actually screamed in waking life as well and woke myself, my mother, sister, and niece. They all came to my bed to see what was happening. I recounted the dream.

Part 2) An Idea