I started traveling with my mom after my dad died. She’s living her best era.

You’d be amazed to discover a new side to a parent when traveling together. I did.

When I moved to New York City soon after turning 20, my journey quickly took me away from my familiar surroundings in Romania. Getting married early and fully immersing myself in a new culture meant growing up fast. Trips back home became scarce, at best once or twice a year.

Every time I returned, something was different. Each of us changed in some way. But what always stayed the same was mom picking me up from the airport, smiling.

My mom visited me

As the years studying in the US passed, I embarked on a semester abroad in Madrid, experimented with an internship in Shanghai as a young divorcee under 25, and eventually moved to France after almost a decade in NYC.

Mom visited me on some of these chapters. One thing became evident — moving abroad creates a unique kind of bonding. I was getting to know her as a friend, outside the lens of my hometown in Bucharest. And vice versa; she saw me become a confident New Yorker first.

This accelerated after I moved back home. As a result of being away all of my 20s and then some, and my father passing away unexpectedly at 66, spending more time with her was the upside.

Unsurprisingly, maybe, my parents met on a trip to Russia in 1978, back when, in communist Romania, the Eastern bloc was the only region allowed to travel to. As she tells the story, they became an item in Saint Petersburg (known as Leningrad then), the start of a shared journey and eventually travel (more so in their 50s and 60s). I remember their memorable trips to Egypt, Dubai for my dad’s 60th, visiting British friends in the UK, and some Asian adventures.

My mom is making up for lost time

Continuing on independently, nowadays, mom is living a second youth, catching up for lost time.

After decades of restrictions and work as an English teacher and tutor at all levels of academia, including the military, she travels more than I do these days as a travel writer. She blossomed instead of being isolated after my dad’s passing and 40 years of marriage.

I most admire her courage to go to far-flung places in her early 70s, in group tours or with close friends. And to keep as active as she does, working out three times a week and maintaining a social life. She’s living her best era, one in which age is just a number and her youthful spirit comes alive.

“If not now, when?” she rightly points out.

And now was that time, our mother-daughter time. My role model of optimism, we’ve since had some amazing experiences. We started 2024 in Puglia, hiked around Transylvania, and traveled all the way to Brazil together, exploring four states and attending the Rio de Janeiro Carnival. Paris for two weeks, followed by last Easter and the French Riviera this Easter.

People tell me I have the coolest mom

Every time we travel, particularly in South America, I see a different side of her “in the wild.” She’s the fun one. Many people have approached me, saying I have the coolest mom. While on a cruise, she was up dancing and swaying with young Brazilian ladies, while I was more reserved, watching from the sidelines. Witnessing the biggest party in the world on the steamy, dazzling Sambadrome will forever remain our most epic memory.

We also share a love for art museums, spicy Asian soups (I’ve proudly influenced her), and active exploring. Not the typical Romanian mother, her do-it-yourself approach is inspiring. She’s a fast learner with technology (early mornings while I’m still half asleep, she’s on Duolingo taking Spanish lessons), a pro at using chopsticks, and surprising us all with her next plans.

She’s had wilder experiences on other trips to destinations as diverse as Argentina, Iceland, Japan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Finally, this year, she is going to China.

As for future travels together, fun adventures surely await. She usually says yes when I suggest or plan something, and so do I when she takes the initiative.

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