In returning to a country that you had been to before, which country pleased you the most?
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In returning to a country that you had been to before, which country pleased you the most?
I had to think hard as to which country I would write about, as there are a number of countries that I have visited in the past five years that I had been to in earlier times.
I guess I would have to say my trip to the Caribbean in the summer of 2024 to attend the ICC Cricket World Cup would rate as the most startling. The reason I say this is because during the glory years of West Indies cricket, I would go to Barbados and two other islands every January. By doing this, I spent time in over 15 islands just due to the cricket. Those were great times.
When I went to cricket in 2024, I visited Barbados, Antigua, St. Lucia and St. Vincent. I had spent time in all of these islands before. I expected it to be like going back home, but I was shocked when I could hardly find my way around Barbados. Everything there seemed so different.
I loved the cricket stadium which had been renovated for the ICC Twenty20 tournament in 2007. Antigua was much the same, so when it was time to go to St. Lucia, I was feeling a bit better as my son was joining me and I was sure he would remember our trip there from many moons ago.
Not so.
When I tried to get him to recall places, he said, “Dad, when we came here I was a little kid.” Quickly doing the math, I realized he would have been about seven years old on that trip.
Of course, we remembered the Pitons and had a great time there, but for the rest of the trip we really were newbies!
I guess what I really learned was that many things sit comfortably in our memories and, if not challenged by today, that former experience continues to be our reality.
So I came away with a disturbing thought. I went from 48 countries at retirement in 2014 to 122 countries visited today without too many revisits.
The question now is: with the target of over 300 countries, should I be integrating stops to places I loved in 1985, or should I just keep going to new places? https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07YJX6K1K
What do you think?