I've been travelling all my life. Travelling as a kid, someone born into a family who's parents are always exploring. I made my first trip to Europe when I was 7, the start of an annual tradition each Easter to go to Europe that lasted until my 10th birthday. That was just the beginning.
I've visited Europe countless more times, but now South America twice, Africa twice, and Asia a few more. I went on a three-month Odyssey instead of playing out the string of a final semester Senior year when I could have taken 1-2 classes and bopped off.
Every time a trip ends, I start planning the next one. Whether they be short weekend jaunts, or extended week-long treks to some mystical foreign land. I am loathe to sit back and enjoy the last one, wanting to set my sights on the next time I can escape the normal world and immerse myself in something new.
I've thought about this near obsession a lot recently. First, I have to admit a few advantages I've had. First, I have a job that allows me to travel a lot, with a scheme allowing for weekend trips fairly often where the biggest expense (the flight) can be somewhat taken care of. I also am lucky enough to not have a family to take care of, or burdensome student loans, or even rent to a large extent, to worry about. My travel budget is higher than it should be given my salary and standing. But even then, I can't think of a better way to pay my 'rent' than in travel.
There is something exciting about going somewhere new, about experiencing a new world. Something I've been able to pick up even in the traveling I have to do for work, to random outposts of America (or Canada, or Mexico) is how different these areas are. They have a different energy, a different way of living. Some of my favorite trips are quick weekends or even the 2-3 days I spend in a city, getting to focus in on what that place is about.
One of the main issues of my travels is so often when I leave a place, I really want to go back, but understand in my heart how impractical that is - there are so many more places to see. This doesn't apply to every place. For sure, Cape Town has carved a lasting enough place in my heart to where I keep wanting to go back, but then there's also Madrid, the place I've ranked as my #1 favorite international city, a ranking I've only tested twice.
The first time I seriouisly traveled alone was in 2010, going to Madrid for three days before heading up to London to meet my sister who was studying there at the time. In 2010, Tripadvisor wasn't really a thing. I had a smart-phone, but without any international data plan. I had no idea how I was able to get quite a bit out of those three days. Since then, staring with my three month odyssey, vacation planning has become such an integral part of the trip. I have a standard format that I use now, an Excel-based file that lists what I intend to do or see each AM, PM, Evening, Night and each meal. I don't always keep to it. I've often had multiple things listed. It is a living and breathing document even during the trip. But it helps keep me sane.
Sure, some may say this studious, punctilious way of planning trips takes away some of the actual fun. And to that end, I have never gone blindly into some foreign place, armed with a backpack containing two changes of clothes, and dove head-first into a new place. But to me that allows you to miss what makes each place special.
Traveling is my job, I work at my regular place of employ in the meantime. There are probably many like me - including again my Dad. It all really starts from him. From the literal sense as he was the one who paid for my first umpteen trips abroad, instilling in myself (and my sister) a love of traveling that has and will last a lifetime. But also becacuse if anyone is more addicted to thrill of new experiences, new countires, new cultures, new places, it is him.
Starting in 2005, my parents discovered they could take trips without their two kids, with my sister being old enough to "take care of us". Since then, they've gone on trip after trip in a truly dizzying pace, to the point where a 5-day trip to Porto literally gets forgotten. I hope to achieve that one day.
I won't stop travelling. It is a way to escape, in a sense, and at times I do fear that is what is driving this never-ending wanderlust tendency. But on the other hand, I've lived in the same metro area my home life, whether it be in the suburbs of Plainsboro or the urban sprawl of New York. There is so much our own country has to offer, let alone the other 196 countries (per Sporcle's count) has to offer. And I still have over 140 to go.
The risk in traveling so much is you avoid reality at times, the bills, the housework, the mundane tasks that drives actual life, but the return on turning your mind away from such banaltiy is the experience of a lifetime, every time. I don't think I've ever not enjoyed a trip somewhere. Sure, some places are better than others, but there is no place better than being away from home, experiencing something new for the first time.
I won't ever stop traveling. Maybe if I have 2-4 kids, and the expenditure becomes too much, sure, but until then it won't stop. There are so many places, from, basically, the whole Mountain Time Zone, to so many places in South America or Africa. There are so many corners of this beautiful world that I haven't yet experienced, set foot in, bathed in the culture and the wonder of new. And thankfully there are many years, and many opportunities, to do so.
I've visited Europe countless more times, but now South America twice, Africa twice, and Asia a few more. I went on a three-month Odyssey instead of playing out the string of a final semester Senior year when I could have taken 1-2 classes and bopped off.
Every time a trip ends, I start planning the next one. Whether they be short weekend jaunts, or extended week-long treks to some mystical foreign land. I am loathe to sit back and enjoy the last one, wanting to set my sights on the next time I can escape the normal world and immerse myself in something new.
I've thought about this near obsession a lot recently. First, I have to admit a few advantages I've had. First, I have a job that allows me to travel a lot, with a scheme allowing for weekend trips fairly often where the biggest expense (the flight) can be somewhat taken care of. I also am lucky enough to not have a family to take care of, or burdensome student loans, or even rent to a large extent, to worry about. My travel budget is higher than it should be given my salary and standing. But even then, I can't think of a better way to pay my 'rent' than in travel.
There is something exciting about going somewhere new, about experiencing a new world. Something I've been able to pick up even in the traveling I have to do for work, to random outposts of America (or Canada, or Mexico) is how different these areas are. They have a different energy, a different way of living. Some of my favorite trips are quick weekends or even the 2-3 days I spend in a city, getting to focus in on what that place is about.
One of the main issues of my travels is so often when I leave a place, I really want to go back, but understand in my heart how impractical that is - there are so many more places to see. This doesn't apply to every place. For sure, Cape Town has carved a lasting enough place in my heart to where I keep wanting to go back, but then there's also Madrid, the place I've ranked as my #1 favorite international city, a ranking I've only tested twice.
The first time I seriouisly traveled alone was in 2010, going to Madrid for three days before heading up to London to meet my sister who was studying there at the time. In 2010, Tripadvisor wasn't really a thing. I had a smart-phone, but without any international data plan. I had no idea how I was able to get quite a bit out of those three days. Since then, staring with my three month odyssey, vacation planning has become such an integral part of the trip. I have a standard format that I use now, an Excel-based file that lists what I intend to do or see each AM, PM, Evening, Night and each meal. I don't always keep to it. I've often had multiple things listed. It is a living and breathing document even during the trip. But it helps keep me sane.
Sure, some may say this studious, punctilious way of planning trips takes away some of the actual fun. And to that end, I have never gone blindly into some foreign place, armed with a backpack containing two changes of clothes, and dove head-first into a new place. But to me that allows you to miss what makes each place special.
Traveling is my job, I work at my regular place of employ in the meantime. There are probably many like me - including again my Dad. It all really starts from him. From the literal sense as he was the one who paid for my first umpteen trips abroad, instilling in myself (and my sister) a love of traveling that has and will last a lifetime. But also becacuse if anyone is more addicted to thrill of new experiences, new countires, new cultures, new places, it is him.
Starting in 2005, my parents discovered they could take trips without their two kids, with my sister being old enough to "take care of us". Since then, they've gone on trip after trip in a truly dizzying pace, to the point where a 5-day trip to Porto literally gets forgotten. I hope to achieve that one day.
I won't stop travelling. It is a way to escape, in a sense, and at times I do fear that is what is driving this never-ending wanderlust tendency. But on the other hand, I've lived in the same metro area my home life, whether it be in the suburbs of Plainsboro or the urban sprawl of New York. There is so much our own country has to offer, let alone the other 196 countries (per Sporcle's count) has to offer. And I still have over 140 to go.
The risk in traveling so much is you avoid reality at times, the bills, the housework, the mundane tasks that drives actual life, but the return on turning your mind away from such banaltiy is the experience of a lifetime, every time. I don't think I've ever not enjoyed a trip somewhere. Sure, some places are better than others, but there is no place better than being away from home, experiencing something new for the first time.
I won't ever stop traveling. Maybe if I have 2-4 kids, and the expenditure becomes too much, sure, but until then it won't stop. There are so many places, from, basically, the whole Mountain Time Zone, to so many places in South America or Africa. There are so many corners of this beautiful world that I haven't yet experienced, set foot in, bathed in the culture and the wonder of new. And thankfully there are many years, and many opportunities, to do so.
