{Festival in San Bartolo, Mexico when I was in High School}I’m a little late to the link up (go figure) but better late than never, and this month’s topic was one that I have loved reading people’s posts on. The topic? Falling in love while traveling. I could recount the countless people I’ve fallen in love with travelling, but to be honest, I’ve written odes to them before, and it would take ten pages to list them all again. I met my boyfriend at University so it’s not about him either. My story is more how I’ve fallen in love WITH traveling, through traveling.
{Boating life in Venice, Italy}
I had always wanted to see the world, but never prepared myself for how in love with different cultures I would become. I figured, hey, see some cool places and cool things and that would be it. My favourite thing however is to wander the streets of a new place and see how the people there live, learn about their customs, their culture, and even try to pick up a little of the language (although this is normally just horribly mispronouncing things). At University I made friends with people from all over the globe, and loved how diverse everyone was. People from the same country would have different religions, customs and ways of life, which to me made everything all the more fascinating to learn about.
{New Years celebrations in Spain}Don’t get me wrong, I love going to a good tourist spot, but more along the lines of museums to learn what make the people of a country tick, or monuments and cathedrals and why they played such an important part in that countries history. Some of my favourite parts of my travels come from stumbling across a random street fair or celebration, going in to a bar and hearing a good local band, watching some amazing street performers, or discovering my new favourite local dish. I feel like since I have started traveling, I have this thirst for knowledge that I never had before; a real love of learning about the places and people I visit.
It’s hard to put into words the immense happiness I feel being in a new place and discovering new things. I believe I’ve been well and truly bitten by the travel bug, and I don’t plan on falling out of love with traveling anytime soon.