The Beginning!

Hey there, gang! I’m new to this blogging thing, but there are a lot of hours in the day to kill and I figured this was as good a weapon as any to kill them with. Let the slaughtering begin then.

I, like many, find great pleasure in traveling, be it inside of or outside of my home country (the United States for me). I am very passionate about travel and experiencing different cultures. I think it’s very important to travel and in a way it’s a very essential form of learning, sometimes equally, if not more, beneficial than traditional classroom learning. I have made many friends over the years from different countries in addition to living with a host family in France for a year, which I think has allowed me a better perspective on similarities as well as differences between cultures and being able to respect these differences.

I also like traveling within the United States as well. I’ve found that I don’t need to go too far to find different ways of living and experience new and foreign things. Until recently, on the continental US I have only visited or lived in cities on either coast. It’s like living in a home and not exploring your own backyard. I’ve decided to make more of an effort to travel to different parts of the US, do weekend trips, adventures, ect in addition to traveling abroad.

In addition to being lots of fun, I believe traveling to be an incredibly valuable educational experience and I think it’s important for everyone to have a chance to travel and to learn about another culture in addition to their own. I feel it helps a person gain a better perspective on themselves as well as the world around them, which is very important in this age we live in.

I know all to well how difficult it can be to find time and money to travel though. If I could I would travel constantly. That requires money, however. Then once you have the money, you need to get the time off from work. This might be hard to do if you find yourself in a job that could lead to something bigger and better and you really need to put in the long hours to do so. You may have a family to think about. Many factors can prevent us from having the freedom we’d like to travel as much as we’d like. Some people can find ways to make it work. I’m not suggesting that I have all the answers, or even some of the answers. Since I’m new at this I’ll have to take it as it comes, but I figure I’ll write about my travel experiences and what’s worked for me as far as planning trips goes. I’ll also search the web for websites with advice and tips on how to travel, hostels and hotels to stay at, restaurants and bars to visit, things to do, and maybe even ways to work abroad for those that wish to do so. I am only one person though, so I was thinking people that happen upon the site and like it (or even if they don’t, and think they have more worthwhile tips and comments) can also suggest websites or give advice from personal experience to help us all become better travelers. It could be a lot of fun or it could suck and go nowhere (hmmm a travel blog that goes nowhere. How unfortunate).

But yeah, if I figure a variety of experiences and findings can only help. If my experience in a place or stuff I’ve found out about a place is very tame or safe compared to your experience or what you’ve heard there is to do in a place feel free to comment on it. I may be like “Frommer’s says suggests going to the main quarter and buying little trinkets from the local markets.” You may see this and think to yourself, “That might be nice, but personally I never made it out of the opium den. And by opium den I mean the space under a bridge on the outskirts of town where I consumed unknown substances for 2 weeks straight and had a total of 3 overdoses." If that is the case, first of all thank god you’re still alive. Secondly, that’s great. Tell us about it so that people with similar interests will know what to do when arriving wherever.