Anybody who knows me knows I love to travel. The irony is I didn’t even have a passport until I was 16 years old. Back then you didn’t need one if staying in North America and my travel consisted of Montreal to Florida … press the repeat button every year.
At 16 I went to Israel for the summer with an organized youth group. At 18 I went to Europe for the first time. London England was my first trip. The following year I went to Greece to foolishly follow a boy. ( clearly, that went nowhere ) and then finally the year after that at 20 years old I went with my best friend and a backpack for 10 weeks across Europe. I never looked back since.
Travel is the ultimate connector. It connects, people from different languages, religions, and cultures, through history, food, architecture, and meeting places. It introduces you to a new place, ultimately creating a new sense of place. If done properly, and by that I mean really immersing yourself in the culture and finding the right balance between indulgence and immersion, you will have memories to last a lifetime. Go to a fancy hotel and sleep in sumptuous sheets, and drinks at the cool hotel bar, there’s nothing quite like it... but really more importantly and this is where the balance comes in, act like a local. Eat where the locals eat, sit on a park bench, and watch the world go by. Take local mass transit to get from point A to point B. You learn a lot about a city through the efficiency of their means of transport. Find that authentic local restaurant or bar and take it all in. Go to the parks/trails/beaches. Buy something frivolous but also buy something meaningful, that may not cost a lot of money but that you’ll have forever and will always take you back to that moment in time at that special place. Travel in my opinion is almost like a sixth sense. Takes all five senses, blends them all together, and enhances the ultimate travel experience.
Travel is the right kind of intoxication. It bears repeating .. travel is the ultimate connector. It’s a table setting on a much grander scale!
