Who's feet could you stand smelling for four months?

Your best friend? A family member? Or maybe you're like me and are thinking that potentially "no one" is the answer.  After high school four of my really great friends decided to go on an adventure of a life time together.  Darcy, Jocelyn, Pascal, and Steve packed up their backpacks and jumped on a plane heading for New Zealand.  They had many amazing stories to make me crazy with jealousy, including

(R-L Pascal, Darcy, unknown, Steve, and Jocelyn.
Picture graciously provided by Jocelyn.
Taken November 2008)  

things like camping on the beach and skydiving over the ocean.  They also came back with a lot of knowledge about back packing, a decent amount of it has left my memory due to envy but a couple things stuck.  One of them included who to take with you on a such an adventure.  As much fun as the four of them experienced together they continuously told me stories about the weird things they were forced to learn about each other, being so close for so long.  I believe out of everything I laughed the hardest about Jocelyn and Darcy screaming and giggling about how much Steve's feet smelt.  Jocelyn howling while saying "you just do not know someone until you've traveled with them, I've known Steve for years and had NO idea".  

I've always been told from many a friend that traveling solo is the way to go.  It forces you to get out of your comfort zone and make new friends in every new place you travel to.  As much as I'd like to think I'm brave enough to hop a twenty-two hour plane ride all alone, I'm pretty certain I would be regretting the decision as soon as the wheels left the pavement of the runway.  So the search began to find someone to join me.

I spent all my time thinking of friends I thought would bring the most to the experience.  I'm sure many of my loved ones would be great to travel with in their own ways but my travel partner came as a surprise to me.  My older cousin Angeline, whom I don't exactly know very well ended up being the choice.

The more I spoke about traveling and all the things I need to do and see in my life time with Angeline the more I realized how perfect of a traveling companion she would be.  She has done some traveling her self in Europe and India and she is just as amazed by the idea of exploring as I am.  We both have the same expectations of where to go and what to do, so there shouldn't be many problems when planning the adventure.  I'm not one to believe too deeply in astrology but one thing that always got my attention was the apparent need for virgos to make lists and have everything planned to the second.  I am known to be a "little much" let's say when it comes to needing everything organized and perfect, so it was a beautiful thing to find that Angeline is a virgo herself.

I don't believe there is one strong thing you can base picking your traveling partner on.  Maybe if you can stand the smell of their feet or you share the same astrology sign you've found the perfect compadre.  Maybe not, maybe you're just going to be stuck having a fun time no matter what with who ever you find next to you on the plane.