A temperate breeze flowed through the ruins of ancient Rome as librarian Shannon Silvers explored the Mediterranean city. She walked through the Colosseum—the bygone stone arena of Roman gladiators. She also explored Vatican City, which is rich in Christian history and art. Through this first trip to Europe around ten years ago, Silvers fell in love with traveling.
Since then, Silvers has traveled to more than fourteen countries, which include England, Belgium, Italy, and Greece. During these trips, she has been to many famous sites, such as the Eiffel Tower, Auschwitz, and the Temple of Poseidon. Silvers, a big fan of Vincent Van Gogh, even visited the artist’s grave in the Netherlands.
The small Eastern European country of Croatia–which geographically is shaped like a “C”–has become Silvers’ home away from home. Croatia, east of Italy and South of Austria is a small country famous for its beautiful beaches, culture, and for being a film spot for Game of Thrones.
“It has a lot of unique tourist sites because the climate is so different from the North to the [South],” said Silvers. “There are parks with rivers and waterfalls in the North but then they have the whole coastline at the [South].”
To Silvers, Croatia isn’t just another place to explore, it holds a deeper meaning. Her great-grandparents hail from Croatia, inspiring Silvers want to visit their homeland. Her ancestors immigrated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and got their start in the steel industry.
“They came from pretty much nothing, didn’t know how to speak English, and came over and did okay for themselves,” said Silvers.
Silvers not only has visited the nation three times, but also holds citizenship there. She is considering living there when she retires.
“The people there are really nice and almost everyone speaks English,” she said. “It’s so easy to get around.”
While some plan out every detail of a vacation to each second, Silvers take a different, more open-ended approach.
“Usually I get inspired and pick a place [to visit]; I’ll usually go during Fall or Spring break because it’s cheaper when it’s not in the summer,” she said. “I’ll buy a plane ticket and I’ll just search on the internet for what I want to do.”
Her travels are like a chain reaction, where one trip leads to another. On her adventures, she meets different people from different parts of the world who inspire her to visit new places.
“When I was in Poland, I was at Auschwitz and I was on a tour,” she said. “This guy and I struck up a conversation and he was like ‘well, next time you need to go to Portugal,’ so then I went to Portugal.”
Sometimes her travels even led her to new friends. While she was traveling in Athens, Greece, she met a woman and fellow teacher named Mal Gorzata. Gorzata was from Warsaw and met Silvers when they stayed at the same location. The two became friends and explored Athens and other Greek islands together.
“She said, ‘Anytime you’re in Warsaw you can come and stay with me,’ and so the next trip I went [to Warsaw, Poland] and stayed with her,” said Silvers.
Even though they live very far apart, the two are friends on social media to this day.
Although traveling is fun, it does have its downsides. This is something Silvers has experienced herself.
“I had a room last time [in Zadar, Croatia] and the air conditioning wasn’t working. It was March, but it was still hot, and so I had to find another room and find a way to get there,” she said.
According to Silvers, it can be hard to travel on a budget, because you are monetarily constricted in what you can do.
“So if you try to travel on a budget, sometimes things just go wrong […] You can’t just pay for a car to come get you and take you somewhere because it’s really expensive,” she said, “so traveling on a budget, even though it has its good parts because you’re saving money, can be really frustrating at times.”
On advice for traveling, Silvers recommends taking advantage of smartphones.
“You put where you’re going in Google Maps [and] it tells you what bus you need to take or what train you need to take,” she said. “That’s why I can do very little planning and just go.”
Overall, Silvers loves to fully immerse herself in the culture of the country she is visiting.
“Anywhere that I go, I want to go and stay there for a while and go to the grocery stores and sort of get into the culture. [I want to] feel like I live there,” she said.
Silvers enjoys traveling not because of the things she buys, but because of the experiences she has enjoyed. The act of traveling and exploring different places is something that will stick with her forever. One day, she would like to visit Japan.
“I [haven’t] been to the Far East and I’ve just heard so many amazing things about Japanese technology and how even things like a toilet can seem so much more advanced than our toilets,” said Silvers.
“Material things don’t last but experiences do. I’d rather spend money on experiences than buy stuff,” Silvers said.
For the next Chainmail Feature, Mrs. Silvers recommends Mrs. Nikki Starnes.
