My Travel Experience So Far
I’ve loved exploring since I was a little kid. In those days, it mainly consisted of playing in the woods that surrounded the neighborhood I grew up in.
Imagine Calvin and Hobbes, but with a neighbor kid instead of a tiger.
Imaginations ran wild with invented histories and epic journeys (I think the farthest we ever went was half a mile). Trips to the North Shore of Lake Superior plucked at similar mental strings for me - fearless climbing around rocky shores, rushing waterfalls dyed deep brown from clay soil and iron, and iconic Split Rock Lighthouse perched on the cliffs.
I was lucky to have parents who prioritized travel. That priority took many forms: driving to Northern Minnesota, driving to Wisconsin Dells, driving to South Dakota. I’m from the US - driving is the standard mode of transportation. As my sister and I got older, the travel distances expanded - road trips to Colorado, the Carolinas, around the Great Lakes, up the West Coast, and more. Even my first international flight to Europe was for the sake of a road trip circuit through Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and France. I don’t remember if I was buried in a book or playing a game, but I know there were stretches when I wasn’t looking out the window and would occasionally get chastised and told to take in where we were at the moment. Oops!
My junior year of high school, we went to Maui and Oahu. I’m not sure how it came about, but somehow my sister “picked” that trip. It was also the first trip that I had a dedicated digital camera of my own choosing for the first time - a brand new 5 megapixel Sony DSC-T1. We hiked Mt Haleakala, I went snorkeling with a high school friend who happened to be on Oahu at the same time, I had a crush on a pretty girl at the same resort as us on Maui, but didn’t say a word to her. We visited Pearl Harbor, which was absolutely fascinating - it’s one of those places where you can sense the gravity of history all around you. We even went to the Dole Plantation which… was the worst. Don’t get me wrong, Dole Whip is delicious (though it melts terrifyingly fast), but we went on some little train ride tour and it may be the most boring thing I have ever experienced while traveling.
Since my sister chose that trip, I made the case that I should get to choose where we go for my senior year of high school. I loved history and determined that the UK was a place rich in history, so that’s what I picked in what ended up being a combination UK and Paris trip.
We flew to Europe on Icelandair (which I recommend as an airline). I watched O Brother, Where Art Thou? on the flight, and I loved it. Luckily, consuming media based on The Odyssey had no impact on the trip. The Keflavík airport was really nice and modern, though it was the first time I ever disembarked from stairs onto the tarmac rather than through a jetway. It was a fifty-fifty experience, cool novelty, but the Icelandic winter climate isn’t ideal for it since we got blasted by ice and volcanic sand on the way into the airport and from the airport to the rental car. That said; the brief layover in Iceland was fun - we hit the Blue Lagoon and walked around a mall somewhere in Reykjavik where I bought a little wooden viking figure.
We arrived in rainy London and I remember a frenzied dash along the sidewalks with luggage in tow, but my spirits weren’t remotely dampened and I was enthusiastically soaking in the dynamics of the city. We spent a few days with landmark sightseeing and I loved every minute of it. Our Scottish tour guide at the Tower of London was a particular highlight - I could barely understand him, but he added so much to the experience. From there we made our way West through Oxford to Bath where I gushed over the namesake first century Roman baths and gorgeous old world charm exuding from every stone of the city.
After a gorgeous drive through the English countryside, we stopped to stay in Marazion where I felt very bougie after being served Diet Coke with lemon while we were checking in (Even though I almost never drink soda anymore, I maintain that lemon is vastly superior to lime in Coke products). I can’t overstate how much of a hidden gem this part of the UK is. Nearby Penzance is a picturesque seaside town that you wouldn’t guess was famous for pirates - specifically frequent raids by Barbary Corsairs. Centuries later, that reputation would be immortalized by the comic opera, The Pirates of Penzance, and a century after that, the film of the same name.
Putting aside pirates, my favorite part of Cornwall was St. Michael’s Mount.
Not to be confused with the more-famous Mont-Saint-Michel in France - it’s an island connected to Marazion by a cobblestone roadway at low tide, but only reachable by boat at high tide. History drips from the stones and your imagination can really fly free when you’re walking along the seafloor. The UK’s National Trust maintains the island and the castle at its peak. It’s worth the trip, trust me.
Capping off Cornwall was a drive out to Land’s End - the most westerly point of “mainland” England (not the UK or even Great Britain). Dramatic cliffs and breathtaking views await anyone willing to make the journey. Just be ready for some strong winds if your luck is anything like mine! The UK leg of the trip capped off with a visit to Sheepy Stonehenge (seriously, there are so many sheep around there). I’ve got some quality shots of me bracing against the chilly drizzle, but it’s definitely a great place to stop and admire the ingenuity of ancient humans.
Meanwhile, 20th century humans built Charles De Gaulle Airport - the best place for people of all ages to feel like they’re in hamster tubes. Although London and the UK were what I was most interested in before the trip, I loved Paris. The weather was milder, so exploring the area around the Champs-Élysées wasn’t meteorologically oppressive. As ever, European architecture is enthralling to the American eye.
From the Arc du Triomphe to the Luxor Obelisk, there is history and beauty to take in. There are the massive glass domes of the art nouveau Grand Palais and the amalgamation of styles that make up the Louvre. Speaking of which, I loved the museum - especially the sculpture garden. In 2005 it had extra pop culture significance following the success of 2003’s The Da Vinci Code novel. It’s one place I can’t wait to visit again now that my appreciation for and knowledge of art has deepened significantly.
After heading off to college, my first and only Spring Break trip with friends was to go skiing at Breckenridge. My standout travel experience during college was studying abroad in Costa Rica. It was an incredible tropical field research program that I was too timid and narrow-minded to fully embrace and immerse myself in. I didn’t travel around the country as much as others on the trip, but it was still enough that it merits its own post in the future. Despite all that, it was a transformative experience that I am so grateful to have had.
The last picture is what happens when your group misinterprets 2-for-1 as half-price.
As a working adult, I’ve been lucky to have the resources and opportunities to travel with family, friends, solo, groups, and for work. Including time spent working in Beijing and work trips to Tokyo and Barcelona. That said; there have been some long stretches of my life when I did not make the time to or was unable to travel. I’ll share a lot more on that in a future post (or posts), but wanted to acknowledge it here - it’s easy for us to succumb to the lack of meaningful holiday time in the US or the general grind and pressure of our lives.
Like a lot of kids, I didn’t fully appreciate the traveling we did - especially road trips when I was often buried in a book or occasionally a Game Gear or Game Boy. It’s taken time to shake off that adolescent awkwardness, shyness, and to feel comfortable in my own skin. As I gathered photos for this post, it was fun to see how visibly I’ve progressed from a child, to an awkward teenager, to a stiff adult, and most recently to a reasonably content person. Even if I still don’t know much about posing, the happiness and appreciation for where I am is so striking.
I’ve been lucky to work abroad in China, with trips to Chengdu & the Great Wall. At other jobs, I traveled to Tokyo & Barcelona.
Even though the interpersonal dynamics, purpose, and context of a trip have significant impacts on the final experience, I can say with confidence and gratitude that every trip has improved my life and often if not always, contributed to my personal growth. By far, the most transformative travel experience of my life so far was a trip to Greece in 2022 with Erin Outdoors and Dimitris Papageorgiou of Tripin Adventures. It’s the perfect snowflake that’s snowballed into my renewed sense of passion for travel and photography which has led to me starting this blog.
If you made it this far, I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my travel experience and at least one side of my life journey so far. I hope you’ll stick around for the next chapter!
