I travel for the same reasons as most people I think – because the world is too beautiful, and the people in it too complex, not to try and see all of it. I travel because each new city I visit forces me to re-imagine the world, and sometimes, my place in it. Most importantly, I travel in order to say yes to things, searching for that moment when, completely immersed in a place’s culture and disconnected from all things familiar, you lose yourself in it.
I think that visiting a place means more than touring its castles and museums and drinking its wine. It means plunging head first in to a place’s foreign-ness and saying yes to things that scare you. In venturing off the beaten path, we find the real-ness of a place, far from the watered-down, press-six-for-English, Disney version. This philosophy, as you can no doubt imagine, has made me anti-resort and pro-hostel (my budget also plays a role in this), anti-tour group and pro-rental car. And my presence on a cruise ship will be an early indicator of the apocalypse.
My efforts to truly connect with the culture of the countries I’ve visited means that when a woman at a bar in Tokyo asked me if I wanted to be on Japanese television, I got in her van at the crack of dawn the next morning. When a Ugandan guide told me that I could see into the DRC from a near-by mountain, I climbed it – on the look out for gorillas and guerrillas. And when the only way to get to the Thai island of Koh Jum was to jump from a moving ferry to a moving longboat, I jumped.
I intend to explore the ways we can truly embrace new cultures and experiences, and ultimately find ourselves changed by them. So follow me on WanderLust as I take the side roads in my search for adventure, adrenaline, and that moment when the foreign becomes the familiar.
Let’s be fearless,
Jen