Not so different

It's funny how you can make friends in just two weeks time.

When we joined up, we were surprised to find that, in our group of 33 people, we represented seven countries.

People from the U.S. - West Virginia, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Tennessee (us), Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and South Africa. Two sets of sisters and their husbands were in the group, and three women traveling alone. One couple from Canada were originally from the Philippines; if you count that, you get eight countries. Our tour director, a native of Scotland but an emigrant to Australia, now lives in Austria (that's him talking to Mae).

We all had the same thing in mind; to see and experience a new place. For one of the Australians, it was visiting her homeland, where she had been born and where her father had lived as a young man.

Two weeks isn't long enough to know each other well, but it is enough time to discover we aren't really that different.

We started as strangers. But after two weeks and 3500 miles, we have become friends.