Buckle up!

Hello dear readers, to make up for my relative silence the last two weeks and to keep you occupied the next two, I have instituted what I hope will be the first of many (or at least regular) guest series.  I convinced five lovely ladies (and my parents, just for kicks) to write about being on the road, again.  The resulting series spans the spectrum of travel from the armchair to family vacation to machete-wielding provinces.  I hope you will stick around. 

I haven’t really written about my travel here and part of that is because some things aren’t for sharing, but more than that, I truly don’t remember a lot of details from my travels.  I have travelled more than I ever thought possible for a little girl from Sheffield Lake and I don’t intend to stop anytime soon.  There is a wide world out there that is constantly changing and I MUST SEE IT ALL!!!! 

What can I say, I’m an only child, the selfish thing rears its head in weird situations. 

But back to my lack of detailed memory of my travelling adventures.  I don’t believe it is due to frequency or overload.  I believe it is because I get overly excited and try to take everything in and inevitably don’t give my head time to really comprehend what it is I am seeing.  I’m also usually sleep-deprived.  I can barely sleep at home, imagine what I’m like in a hotel room overlooking the Grand Bazaar or in a campsite surrounded by a very active nightlife or a stifling bedroom with no screens on a mosquito rich farm.  I’m working on it.

This is not the case with what each place felt like.  I have very distinct feelings about each place I have visited and those stick with me much longer than the details.  For instance, Croatia = car sick, Paris = aloof (and rain), Eastern Africa = love and awe, Istanbul = colour (and stomach parasite), etc. 

I have no idea what Morocco will bring.  I have wanted to visit this place since I was a little girl.  I have no idea how I first learned about it, but it has been on the Wish List for a very long time.  This is a bit dangerous.  I hope I haven’t built it up too much in my head just to be disappointed by how built up it is in reality.  I remember Pete shattering my view of Cairo and the pyramids after he visited and saw the pyramids in what appeared to be the middle of a landfill. 

I still want to go. 

Sometimes I worry for my future children and their travel experiences.  I travel to escape to see something new, to get a bit of perspective.  More and more the places I go, get more and more familiar.  There are good aspects of globalization, but there are heartbreaking ones as well. 

But this is not the place to lecture on Globalization, I recommend you go out and see for yourself and make your own opinion. 

That being said, travel doesn’t necessarily mean leaving the house.  It is about physical escape for me, but escape and perspective can also be gained from the comfort of home, but it must be sought out. 

I beseech you to search it out.  There is a lot out there in our world to fascinate  as well as make your everyday problems seem small potatoes.   Go forth and explore. 

Thus concludes my public service announcement on the importance of Geography education.

Please join us for the rest of the week (and next) as my lovely guests take to the road, again. 


*photo of Pete's family's farm in Croatia.  The village of his father's childhood, Vrgorac, in the distance