In my free time, I like to lurk around the popular travel message boards. Web sites like BootsnAll and Lonely Planet are loaded with thousands of travelers visiting all sorts of places around the world, from Belize to Beijing and everything in between.
Maybe it’s just the daydreamer in me but I love the idea of visiting new places and experiencing new cultures. Many regulars on the travel message boards have even traveled around the world and it’s gotten to the point where a niche RTW (round-the-world) market has developed.
Now, round-the-world travel may be a little beyond my reach at this point in my life but during my tenure on this planet I’ve been to some places, and plan on traveling to more. I’ve spent a semester living in England and even managed to travel across the Channel to spend some time in France. I’ve been to the Bahamas a couple of times, cruised to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Canada with my family to celebrate my grandmother’s 80th birthday, and visited a few states.
Unfortunately, like millions of other working stiffs I am entrenched in the corporate rat race. On one hand my job gives me enough vacation time to travel at least once a year; on the other hand I only travel once a year. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to travel more in the future. We’ll see.
In my opinion, traveling is not so much a description of getting from point A to point B; instead it’s a state of mind. Travel allows you to get in touch with yourself while discovering your environment.
For the summer of ‘08, I’m planning my next trip: my honeymoon in Italy. We haven’t worked out the details just yet, but we hope to manage a couple of weeks. Let’s hope that dollars-to-euro exchange rate narrows a bit. If not, maybe I should be looking for a cheap deal in Southeast Asia instead.
I would like to see a continuation of the topic