Have I mentioned that I love to travel? I think that I have always been a bit of an explorer. I remember this big forested hill (when I was young it seemed like a mountain) that used to be behind my parents house. My brother and I were forbidden to go up into the collection of tall trees, so, of course, that is all that we wanted to do. One day I decided that the suspense was just too much and I was going to venture up that hill, even if I was not allowed. So, I boldly went where no neighborhood child had gone before - and I lived to tell the tale. The idea of an unexplored (at least by me) area of my neighborhood was just too much for me to handle. Although this was not my first adventure into the unknown, it certainly is one that has stayed with me through the years.
And, perhaps this is what I love most about travel - the unknown. But, I can't say that I have always loved venturing into unknown territory. One time during a backpacking trip through Ireland I just broke down and cried because I had no idea where I was and, even worse, no idea how to get where I wanted to go. At the time I was terrified. Now, I am grateful that I had that good cry in the middle of an Irish train station. I lived to tell this tale too, which means that I finally found a way to get where I needed to go. In fact, if I had not gotten lost during my Ireland trip I would have never found that fantastic little pub where I met the most engaging young man...but that is a story for another time.
Although the unknown is not always pretty, it is always a learning experience. Travel is about venturing into the unknown in order to find yourself. You can learn so much about yourself when you travel. And, better yet, you can learn that you don't know much at all. It is eye opening to realize how much there is out there in our world.
This week I want to hear your travel stories. It does not matter if the extent of your travels have brought you as far as Disney World or China, I am sure that you still learned a little something about the world. Tell us about your lessons...
21 comments:
I have been traveling all my life. I was born in California, then moved to Belgium when I was a couple months old, when I was 4 I moved to Pennsylvania and just 2 years ago I moved to Weston. I have also traveled to Alcopolco, Cancun, throughout the US and Canada.
When I lived in Belgium we traveled all throughout Europe and it was really a great experience. Even though I don't remember much it still is a part of my childhood and who I am. I love hearing stories about how I would not be able to go into castles and churches with my parents because I would scream to hear my echo. Also, it made me realize how close to my parents I am and how I do not like to venture out and do things on my own. I hope I will be able to travel in the future and share those experiences with my kids because I think it is a thing that should be completed during life.
I'm not much of a traveler, but that is because I've never had the opportunity to do so, not because I don't like it. I think that going to places that you never really knew existed is great. Since I wasn't born here, I guess coming to this country was my great "travel adventure." To the people living here the U.S. is no big deal, but when I first arrived here, I was in shock. I mean the people looked so different, their houses were much nicer, they owned cars that I didn't even know existed, they dressed differently and most importantly they spoke this unknown language. I felt I was in a place where I didn't belong, I was an outcast. I guess at first it was pretty impacting, but after a while I got used to this "new world" and I actually became fond of it.
Like you mentioned before, the best part about traveling is the unknown. This feeling of uncertainty is what makes it a great experience. Arriving in this new place and observing how much different other cultures are from your own, it's really a great experience. I hope to be able to travel more often in the future and actually get a chance to visit countries that I don't know anything about.
During summer I traveled to Maryland to attent a water polo camp in the Naval Academy. I flew alone and when I arrived there I wasn't being expected by anyone, I had to call a cab and ask the driver if he could drop me off at the Naval academy without paying him... He unfortunately responded no to my aspiring plan, I ended up having to hitch rides from the Baltimore airport to the Naval Academy. When I finally arrived at camp, 5 hours later than planned, I was forced to walk up and down the flights of stairs with weights on my ankles... 8 flights, for 2 hours straight... What a first impression. After the first day I was able to walk around town, a truly beautiful sight. There was more of a feeling of humbleness, shops were small and right next to each other, one could go shop and get everything he wanted in just one road. This experience is what influences me to live in Maryland when I grow up, I truly fell in love with this place.
In 7th grade I traveled with my family to Europe. We visited France, Spain, Turkey, Germany, and stayed the longest in Italy. We saw different cultures and remains of ancient civilizations.
Our tour guides pointed out that each culture can be understood through their architecture. For example, we visited the Roman Colliseum and the Vatican Church.
My favorie part though was each places cuisine. Italy's food was just too good. Now everywhere I have Italian food, I am subconciencly comparing it to what I had in Italy.
Traveling will always teach you valuable lessons. Sometimes you have to experience life rather than be an active spectator. The discovery channel can only teach you so much. I challenge myself to travel almost everyday to experience new things and opportunities. I don't hold myself back.
Traveling is also something that I have came to greatly appreciate; like you said, it is a great learning experience. This can be from a bad or good event too. It really doesn't matter because either way you end up discovering something new about yourself, others, or even the world. Hopefully when I am older, I will have the time and money to travel and learn more about the world. Some may say that you don't need money to travel, but I definitely think that some money sure does go a ling way.
I, myself, have been a fairly fortunate traveler as a young adult. I have ventured on several cruises which I have came to learn a lot from. One of my favorite things about cruises is the various cultures all thrown onto one ship. You are able to learn more about the world from others by just be at sea rather than at your destination cruise port. Also, I have to say that the food is great! And its all you can eat, all the time you want, until the cruise is over of course. But If any one out there has not gone on a cruise before, I would definitely recommend it, even if you get sea sick, because trust me you won't. You'll have more fun than you ever thought possible, while learning more about the world one stop at a time. So get out there and have some fun! You will not regret it!
I also live in a family that always feels the need to travel to new and exotic places. The place that really comes to mind when I think about the most interesting travel destination I've ever been to is Alaska. This travel allowed me to see the true natural beauty of the world, free of human development. I got to see things I would never see anywhere else in the world. I distinctively remember seeing a full grown humpback whale and her calf, both larger then the boat we were sailing in. Every place you looked you saw something fantastic and truly remarkable.
Stoklosa you're so cute, this made me smile.
Okay well one time I went with my whole family to north carolina. We rented a cabin really high up in the mountains. It was like 3 am and everyone was in the hot tub hanging out and drinking hot drinks, but I was bored. I decided to bike all the way down the hill and it was pitch black/there were alot of noises, I ventured into the woods for 5 minutes hoping to find a small river and heard a loud crunching sound so immediately left. It felt awesome though, later while bike riding back up I found out it was a deer. I love walking around at night and mostly because it's dangerous. It's dangerous. I'm drawn to the eerie feeling.
Traveling is my favorite thing to do, and I do a variety of things, believe me. I've traveled to the most elegant and luxurious places. Among them, are Monaco, Spain, New York, Las Vegas, Barbados, and Brazil. On each trip, I always find myself realizing something about life or about myself; usually when I'm alone. It's gotten to the point where I purposely try to be alone during the trip and stare at the 'new' environment around me. I usually plug in my headphones and play an emotional song (coldplay's songs are my favorite) while I analyze my surroundings and store everything I see in my head to bring back home. I'm sure my classmates do the same, or they should, it really makes the experience ten times more intense. I also acknowledge traveling is a privilege not all people have, and that's why I try to enjoy every trip as if it were the last time I would visit.
I love to travel. Even if it’s to a different country or to walk to the lake. What makes an adventure is what you do during that time. I remember that I went to Maine for Christmas and New years. I was very excited because I have never seen snow. The trip was amazing and I made a snowman and it was a great experience. Until the last 2 days when we found out that a blizzard was going to hit Maine the day we were going to leave. I was a little happy because I wanted be in Maine while it was snowing not when the snow is on the floor already.
My family and I were 2 hours away from the airport so we found out that we needed to stay in a hotel in the city. The day we were going to leave, the flights we delayed 8 hours and while I was getting out of the car to go in to the airport it started to snow.
When I was in 2nd grade I went to San Francisco. Being on the west coast was a whole new experience to me because of the time difference. Even though we went during the summer, I remember it being really cold and windy outside. My favorite part of the whole trip was walking on the Golden Gate Bridge because it was so foggy but you could still see so much of the city.
One summer afternoon, my older cousin and I decided to go for a long bike ride. We gracefully pedaled around town, through neighborhoods, across bustling intersections, just exploring. One of our destinations was Coldstone's. In order to get there, we had to cross Highway 51. I didn't think much of the busy multi-lane street. We got there safely and enjoyed our ice cream. When I sat down at the dinner table that night, I began telling the day's stories. As soon as I mentioned I went to Coldstone's, my parents went ballistic- "You biked across 51?!" I think the unknown is not only what intrigues us about new places, but if we knew the dangers or consequences of something, we might restrict ourselves from experiencing events we can learn from.
I love to travel. Even it is for a short amount of time I get all excited. I haven't been to a ton of places. I've been to ST.Thomas, South Carolina, California, Louisiana and New York. I would have to say that ST.Thomas is my favorite place to visit. My family and I try to go a often as we can because we have a lot of family there. The activities and beautiful sights really put a smile on my face.
Traveling has to be one of the most adventurous and exciting activities ever. Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to travel as far as Europe and Asia, but I plan to visit those areas of the world in my future. My favorite destination that I have traveled to would have to be Mexico. The culture, people, and overall look of the country are so different from the United States, and that is why I thought this country to be so interesting. While I was in Mexico, I visited the city of Cozumel where my family and I toured the local village and observed much of the Mexican culture. I took great interest in the way the people dressed and the food they ate because it was so different than what I was used to.
I haven’t been many places far and wide but I have a great aspiration to do so. A traveling trip that opened my eyes was when I went to my Grandparents house in Central Florida when I was 8 years old. Before this particular trip I had never really noticed the rural environment. They live in a small town called Fort Mede which has only one traffic light.
This trip I was able to explore. I went to Main Street (500 feet from the house) and went into the pawn shop, gun store, and restaurant. Everyone seemed to know each other like they were family. After that I got to pick oranges and drive my grandpa's red Chevy pickup truck through acres of orange groves which he owned.
This experience brought to my eyes what it truly means to be a simple man.
I have always been a traveler with my family. I have been on about nine cruises and they’ve each taken me out of the country to either Europe or a nice tropical island. I went to Europe with my family the summer going into 9th grade and it was a great experience. I wish it were more of a vacation because we took a lot of tours which we usually never do. I did learn a lot though! A story I have about Rome is that we almost got stuck there. My mom loves to get things for other people so we stayed too long at the shops. My dad, sister and I all tried to get her moving because we were going to miss our ride back to the ship and my mom was in an annoying mood so she wasn’t listening. We ended up being left there, the three of us had to run for a bus, and we could not find it. A travel guide eventually called us because they noticed we weren’t with the group. I lived to tell the story which was nice! Now I know not to let my mom shop without a time frame in her mind at all times.
I have been in Turkey, Egypt, Italy, Greece, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Japan, Mexico, over ten states in the U.S., Germany, Belgium, Israel, and a few more.
The point is that in all the places I have had the privilege to have been in, I came to the same conclusion as any other person can make, learning something about myself, one thing I learned was that traveling might be great but really there's no place like home. Another thing I learned was that traveling can inspire any artist from writing to paintings.
I love traveling too and I have always traveled with my family to many places. Traveling to new areas is always interesting and entertaining. I think adventures with friends are more fun though. For example a couple years ago I would love walking to places at night time with my friends. It is such an adventure especially if you go through a different way that you have never gone. I also used to love playing hide and go seek in my friends neighborhoods when I had no idea where everything was. This is because it is just another adventure and I just have so much fun going on adventures with friends. Especially when you are running from someone in hide and go seek because your adrenaline is pumping and if you lose them you may even get lost yourself which is always fun unless you are truly lost in an area that is completely different than the neighborhood you were in.
The last experience I had in regards to traveling was pretty life changing. It seems appropriate that my only blog is about soccer, when I'm talking about soccer here as well. It was to Arizona, to compete in the most important tournament of my life. Here, the 80 or so soccer academies of the nation all went to match up against each other. Almost like a feeding frenzy, scouts from all over go to watch the games. Depending on the games, there was about 10-15 scouts per game, jotting down notes and observantly watching your moves. Though some found it nerve-wrecking, I loved the pressure and realize what a great opportunity it was for me.
This summer I went to Canada with my sister. So one morning my sister and I decide to go to the zoo that was not too far away. We buy train tickets and go, turns out the train was being repaired that day and we could not go straight to our destination, we get on a bus that was suppose to take us there. Apparently not because we don’t end up were we wanted to. My sister wanted to go back to my aunt’s house, back to her computer and television, but I tell her were lost (which was of course a lie). I just wanted to walk around the city, it was a beautiful place, and it was a very nice day outside. We did have a nice time she complained every bones in a while because we “were lost”. She actually called my uncle after a few hours when he finished working and he picked us up.
I travel once in a while, but never too far. Recently I've been to North Carolina, Orlando, Sarasota, New York, and Washington. In New York and Washington, I was with my friends wandering the streets. We had to find our way around everywhere.
Post a Comment