Whoever said honeymoons must be relaxing doesn’t know my husband, or myself, for that matter. When we were planning our wedding and its festivities, (upon the inviting, cheap ticket fare) we booked a trip to South Africa for our honeymoon. The ticket required us to fly from Chicago to Paris, Paris to Abu Dhabi, and lastly, Abu Dhabi to Johannesburg (on the return we had a stopover in Manchester instead of Paris). Challenge accepted for $475, Etihad Airways!
In the wee hours of the Monday morning (wedding night was Saturday, as described here), we left our apartment and drove to the airport at 4am. Right after I didn’t waste any time dropping my phone and cracking the screen to add a bit of entertainment. From Memphis, we flew to Chicago and the honeymoon was on!
I am not sure I could say that our honeymoon was everything I had ever dreamed of because, to be perfectly frank, I had never really dreamed about my honeymoon. Rob and I have travelled together for quite some time, and many of our trips previously have felt like a honeymoon in themselves. Anyway, who dreamed up a honeymoon? (apparently it dates back to a1500’s to get couples acquainted to the physical side of their relationship…blah)
The honeymoon wasn’t some overtly romantic dream getaway, and that was perfectly fine. We spent some amazing quality time NOT thinking about planning a wedding and realizing that we were MARRIED. We took a wine and bike tour, explored Capetown, educated ourselves on the area’s history, drank local beers and wines, and enjoyed the concept of NOT setting ourselves up to a honeymoon, and marriage for that matter, founded on expectations set by the media or social pressures.
Our honeymoon was just that: ours. Some people were surprised when we said we weren’t going to a beach for our honeymoon, or that we flew a total of 24 hours each way to get to our destination. But in reality, this is what we wanted- yes we may have physically exhausted ourselves by flying copious amounts, but we did get to discover new places together with zero expectations of achieving some idealistic honeymoon dream. And now that we are officially into our lives as a married couple, I wouldn’t change our honeymoon experience for the world.
#watchusroam
~ Ro