Many of our customers of Craft & Oak order a full set of custom city posters to commemorate a special trip. For today, we’re writing about backpacking. We were able to get in touch with one of our customers who wanted to tell us a little bit more and share his unique story about his backpacking trip across southern Europe.
Along the way, one of the more notable places he visited was Reyjavik, the capital of Iceland. Our guest today is Edan, and he grew up in Long Island, NY.
Edan wanted to commemorate the four countries he visited with a set of city map prints - one from each city, with the dates that he visited each place. In his own words, he writes:
“I started my trip off from NYC and headed to Reykjavik in mid-August. Iceland was amazing and so natural and picturesque. There were parts of Iceland where I genuinely believed had not been set foot on by a human yet. I wanted to commemorate that feeling I got when I travelled through Iceland, especially in Reykjavik. The capital was cold (in temperature) for the time of year, and the architecture was just so cool. The beauty of Reykjavik really impressed me. I decided to go with the “colored” option on CraftOak.com, because it really set the mood and made me think of Iceland when I saw that color.
After spending five days in Reykjavik, I headed on my journey and landed in Barcelona, Spain. Barcelona was incredibly hot compared to Iceland, and the summery vibe that I got from the locals was quite noticeable. I took in the sights, I especially loved the Sagrada Família, the largest church in Barcelona - and was awed by the amazing food, especially the large Paella trays! For my Barcelona city map print, I wanted something to represent the mood I felt, so I chose the color Red for it, and zoomed in on the heart of the city. Spain is a passionate place, and the temperature being hot - I thought this was the perfect color for my Barcelona map print.
From Barcelona, I travelled by train to Paris - which is normally a 9 hour ride. I stopped at a few places along the way to break up the trip, but at the end of my long locomotive journey, I found myself in the city of love and romance! What an amazing place. I loved visiting all the Museums - especially the Musee Orangerie - where Monet’s Water Lillies are displayed! I sat in the egg-shaped gallery for at least a couple hours and was amazed by the masterpiece itself. I of course, visited the Louvre, Eiffel Tower as well. I especially loved the cafe culture of Paris, as well as the baguettes. For my Paris city map, I chose the color Pink - since I fell in love with the city, and to me, the color Pink radiates love.
My last and final stop was Brussels. I chose Brussels because I have a deep interest in Comic Books, and Brussels is the home of the Belgian Comic Strip building, where there’s an entire collection and history of comics. I spent a few days in Belgium, and I found the people to be the friendliest here on my entire trip. That might be because they have a great understanding of English, whereas the prior few places I had a language barrier. I chose the city map print of Brussels in Blue, I’m not sure why I chose this color, but I loved how it looked”.
Thank you Edan for sharing, we do hope that you enjoy your city map prints.