My Top Reasons to Travel

Why Travel- My Top list

As a five year old I knew I wanted to travel the world. The books that were read to me then like the Arabian Nights and Lion Witch and the Wardrobe, feed my longing to visit strange lands, speak a different language, make friends with people from the World and fly on a magic carpet! Yay! As I am writing this right now, I can feel all the wonder, joy and excitement five year old me had about travel. Guess, it will never go. I love to travel!

“To move, to breathe, to fly, to float,
To gain all while you give,
To roam the roads of lands remote,
To travel is to live.”

― Hans Christian Andersen, The Fairy Tale of My Life: An Autobiography

So, I thought it would be interesting to explore why I love to travel. Great idea hey? I got so many travel photos filed away on my computer that I can include in this article to illustrate my thoughts with the hope to inspire, aspire and entertain you.

So here goes. My top list of reasons why people love to travel. This is by no means an extensive list.

LEARN A LANGUAGE

Seriously the best way to learn a language in being in the country, talking with local people. Learning the real way people talk on the street. It is such a fun and alive way to learn and experience a culture through their eyes and language.

One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things- Henry Miller

My Top Five Reasons to Travel — Maori Image, Aotea Roa.

LEARN ABOUT YOURSELF

Oh boy did I learn a lot about myself. Being away from home and what is familiar – out of comfort zone. Is a great way to become more aware of yourself without hiding- fears came up. Like am I going to find somewhere to stay was a real fear I had packing my backpack at the start of my solo round the world trip. What was that about? The fear was unreal. As soon as I was on the plane, that fear went poof! Disappeared! I really learnt to listen and trust my gut instincts and also discovered how easy it was for me to adapt to change-constantly moving through different time zones getting pulled out of my regular groove thinking in English, speaking Castellano and a bit of French flying out of my mouth. Wow, I felt so alive!

“Let your mind start a journey thru a strange new world. Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before. Let your soul take you where you long to be…Close your eyes let your spirit start to soar, and you’ll live as you’ve never lived before.” Erich Fromm

New Experiences.

Seeing things face to face is so different to images in books, movies or on tv.

Glaciers, icebergs, live volcanoes, geyser ,animals in their natural environment, seeing the big red sun in Japan, Staying in a Ryokan-traditional Japanese Inn, riding the Shinkansen-super fast train across Japan, seeing rice paddies, seeing clouds cast shadows over the landscape for a city girl this was new! Experiencing high altitude, walking in a desert not for too long it was 55 degrees Celsius my skin felt as if it was sizzling!!!

“Throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the trade-winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
-Mark Twain

Iceberg, Los Glaciares National Park- UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Patagonia. Argentina.

Challenge Yourself.

One of my intentions of travelling was to challenge myself to live outside of my comfort zone and get comfortable around the unknown. I did not plan things, I did things as much as I could in the moment, following my gut instincts on where to go, what to see and experience in places where no one spoke English, no English signs and I was learning the language from a book. Living in the unknown brought out more of my creativity, thinking outside the box of how I would do or even communicate things differently.I got to see I was more resilient than I thought. And things are not as scary as you think.

All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware – Martin Buber