A new acquaintance I recently made, really got me thinking when they told me that they never got the itch to travel. As someone who personally loves to visit foreign countries or new cities, I had trouble grasping this concept. It led me to wonder - why did I like to travel so much?
I think some of it may have to do with the fact that I was lucky to be exposed to travel from a very young age. As a dual-citizen with a foreign parent, I was made several trips to Brazil to visit extended family while I was growing up. Traveling became a way to connect with more of my extremely large family and was always filled with happy thoughts of a 90 degree Christmas, white New Years, a hanful of aunts, and more cousins than I could count. It also showed me from a young age, what life is like on another side of the world where dancing and enjoying yourself is more important than material possessions but where you need to hug your bag a little closer to your side when crossing the street. Spending that time on the other side of the equator as a child, gave me a different perspective.
I suppose the traveling itch is just like any other - the more you scratch it, the more you feels its pangs. There is something about seeing the places you've read about in novels or textbooks, walking through or touching a place you've seen in movies, tasting the food, experiencing the weather, listening and dancing to the music, touching the different currency, and watching the people that doesn't lose its fascination. The more I move forward, the more I move back - the more I want to re-read those books, re-watch those movies, delve deeper into history, try that food again, and keep dancing that dance. And just because you've seen a place, that doesn't mean you're done. I've spent enough return plane, train and bus rides planning my next visit that I know there is no cure for the travel bug.
The next series of posts will all be about my most recent travels. I hope that for those of you who haven't traveled much, that maybe it gives you a little bit of that itch. I only saw a tiny sliver of the world on my most recent trip, but it contined to open my eyes to how incredible the world is and how much I want to see the rest of it. See the world - and then tell me about it.
I think some of it may have to do with the fact that I was lucky to be exposed to travel from a very young age. As a dual-citizen with a foreign parent, I was made several trips to Brazil to visit extended family while I was growing up. Traveling became a way to connect with more of my extremely large family and was always filled with happy thoughts of a 90 degree Christmas, white New Years, a hanful of aunts, and more cousins than I could count. It also showed me from a young age, what life is like on another side of the world where dancing and enjoying yourself is more important than material possessions but where you need to hug your bag a little closer to your side when crossing the street. Spending that time on the other side of the equator as a child, gave me a different perspective.
I suppose the traveling itch is just like any other - the more you scratch it, the more you feels its pangs. There is something about seeing the places you've read about in novels or textbooks, walking through or touching a place you've seen in movies, tasting the food, experiencing the weather, listening and dancing to the music, touching the different currency, and watching the people that doesn't lose its fascination. The more I move forward, the more I move back - the more I want to re-read those books, re-watch those movies, delve deeper into history, try that food again, and keep dancing that dance. And just because you've seen a place, that doesn't mean you're done. I've spent enough return plane, train and bus rides planning my next visit that I know there is no cure for the travel bug.
The next series of posts will all be about my most recent travels. I hope that for those of you who haven't traveled much, that maybe it gives you a little bit of that itch. I only saw a tiny sliver of the world on my most recent trip, but it contined to open my eyes to how incredible the world is and how much I want to see the rest of it. See the world - and then tell me about it.
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