Reminiscing the Grand Canadian Hitchhike

Can’t believe it’s been over a year now.

As I put the phone down, after a radio interview with Dublin City FM, metaphoric gallons of nostalgia fluid splurged out of my head and wrapped me in a cocoon of reminiscence.

The breach of my memory dams has been ruptures weeks in the making, since I was at the very travel blogger conference mere two weeks ago that marked the one-year anniversary of Grand Canadian Hitchhike; conveniently, many bloggers whom I met pre-hitchhike last year had only seen me again for the first time post-hitchhike at TBEX, so queries about one of the best trips of my life – so far, I hope – were naturally aplenty.

And when I’ve just had an interview solely on the topic of hitchhiking, my mind was consumed with fragments of memories – so overwhelming that I’m feeling the need to commit psychological imageries and voices into expressed words.

I may have seemingly mentioned this journey a thousand fold, spoken and written about it till I’ve expended the English vocabulary – whether it’s on my blogs or external platforms and interviews – though the truth has yet to be uttered.

The truth is, I’ve barely scratched the surface.

A new way of remembering

So much had happened within those two summer months of 2011. Hitchhiking was really the means of getting from Vancouver to Halifax, and a pretence to elevate myself to awesomeness status – though for me I hitchhike for philosophical and self-fulfilling motivations, which I won’t bore you with the details here and now – and the stretches of epiphanies and unique experiences were far greater than the distance the praires covers.

How about that time in Saskatoon, when I abruptly and inadvertently became an advocate of Couchsurfing?

How about my first-ever Canada Day experience – in Canada?

How about the revelations, ironies and commiserations from conversations with the people I’ve met along the way, during or outside a lift?

There’s so much emotion and poignancy I’ve kept to myself for over a year – and I won’t bottle it up any more.

One year on

So to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Grand Canadian Hitchhike, and to stop keeping secrets from you, I’m going to let spill some of my most treasured moments and enlightenments, may them be life-changing events to that from the bottom of a coffee cup.

The last time I wrote an extensive piece on Grand Canadian Hitchhike it was prior to the trip, whereupon I expressed my fears and uncertainty – this time, this whole mini series about my epic adventure will be depictions of proud achievement, humble lessons and optimism for the future.

All upcoming blog posts in this mini series will be labelled with the Grand Canadian Hitchhike logo; these pieces will cover a large variety of aspects and topics I’d encountered throughout my trip, and won’t necessarily be about hitchhiking.

For more series on The Travelling Editor visit the series section.

Tagged as: 2011, adventure, blog, Canada, culture, documentary, friendship, hitchhiking, life