Senior Travel - My Greece & Balkans trip with senior kids

My Trip to Greece & Balkans with a bunch of senior kids

By Anand Parameswaran Experience 0 Comments

My Trip to Greece & Balkans with a bunch of senior kids – Senior travel

Before I start talking about my experience, let me ask you what exactly is a senior? The most obvious answer would be someone who is 60-plus years of age. The common feeling here is that your age defines you! And not the other way round… We often keep the age bar above everything else and start defining the course of our life based on our age. Sounds familiar?

This concept of seniors is highly prejudiced, don’t you think? Age is just a number and nothing else, at least that’s what I learnt with the bunch of seniors I happened to travel with.

I could recall these famous lines of a popular Hindi film song that fits aptly here.

“Ladakpan Khel Mein Khoya,

Jawaani Neend Bhar Soya,

Budhaapa Dekhkar Roya.”

This translates as,

“You lost your boyhood in games,

The young you in sleeping,

And cried, looking at the older you.”

The Trip and Senior travel

This was a long trip predominantly by road, covering Greece, Albania, North Macedonia and Bulgaria over close to 20 days. I was skeptical about my ability in handling folks who are almost twice my age. I was concerned about their idiosyncrasies and health issues that are inevitable at times. But, these devil-may-care travelers proved me wrong and gave me the learning of a lifetime.

tour-packages-for-senior-citizens — Mr. Khan, a random bus and Swag..

I could say this without a doubt, that the zest for life, the thirst for experience is far more in these young oldies than anybody else. One of my fellow-travelers said something that will stay with me forever.

He said “If I am young, I see a place and I can come back to that place again. If I am old I squeeze every ounce of it as I know I can’t come back to that place ever again”.

fun-with-an-ad_seniors — Rafat pushing back pushy ads

bar-group_seniors — Rajiv, Rafat and Nadeem summing up the devil-may-care attitude

Having fun even with billboards on streets, exhibiting sheer child-like enthusiasm and grabbing joy over every experience…

The experience of travelling with this bunch of seniors was enlightening. Once we were at a bar enjoying a drink, with some rock music in the background. The seniors requested for retro songs and were very adamant about it. While the youngsters like to hop from one bar to another and are not solid about their idiosyncrasies, the old are clear about their requirements. We ended up staying at one bar the whole evening and had a ball singing old ditties and introducing the youngsters there to a genre of music that they probably hadn’t experienced before…

Dylan Thomas and Senior Travel

Dylan Thomas has summed up the ethos of Senior Travel in these three lines,

“Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

Dylan Thomas

meteora_seniors — The curiously shaped rock on the trek to a monastery in Meteora that led to much merriment

Meteora Rock Monasteries and Senior Travel

The next leg of our tour was the Male monk monastery of Meteora. The monastery had more than 300 steps to climb, not easily accessible I would say… While I was feeling bad for this bunch of enthusiasts, they had already figured a way out – they decided to go to the female monk monastery which didn’t require a climb but was through a walk way. Did I tell you that one of them had had a bilateral knee replacement and was still all gung-ho about the walk. I was amazed at their spirit and never-say-die attitude. The boring walk to the monastery through the forest became entertaining, with ample stories from their lives and experiences. Oh, and we had a literature Prof in the group who made the entire trip memorable – spouting situation-apt English poetry and old Hindi film songs through the trip.

They tried every cuisine and local wine as if wanting to soak in as much local experience as possible. Their great enthusiasm & energy reminded me of a child, savoring the toffee pack passionately at first, and slowing down to not finish it and enjoy till it lasts. It’s like drinking it to the last drop. Maybe that’s the reason they go deep in everything.

My itinerary for them was limited to Greece and the Balkans, but they handed me a well crafted itinerary for life and the dream of “Beyondness”… And a keen-ness to enjoy life to the fullest.

Tennyson and Senior Travel

As Lord Tennyson put it beautifully in his poem “Crossing the Bar”,

“Sunset and evening star
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
and after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;

For though from out our Bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar”