INSPIRATION

In my opinion, travel is not just about checking off sights on a bucket list, or amassing instagram followers. The experiences that enhance our lives the most are the ones that are personal, emotional, inspirational and somehow expand our ability to understand and relate to the world and ourselves. It’s great to have trips and tours organized for you while you are on the road, but taking a moment to engage with your destination on a level that clicks with you is the part that will most likely stay with you forever. For me, these moments are often wrapped up in experiences around education, food, art, literature and music. For you it might be language immersion classes over coffee at a local cafe, a meaningful homestay, a window into history through the eyes of a local, or a breathtaking bike ride.

One of the things I’d like to do with this site is to share lists and ideas and links to help you start personalizing your travel experiences. This can happen en route of course, but a lot of pleasure can be found in the preparation for a journey, packing, dreaming, consulting friends and experts. You are leaving your every day routine, and you have the power to craft your time any way that it suits you. This is a moment of discovery. Who are you? What drives you? When you picture a day on the road what excites you? What exhausts you? How can you really feed yourself on this journey? How can you maybe change it up a little from your norm and stretch yourself – not to breaking – but to just expand a little.

There is also a pleasure to be found in packing, preparing, checking the weather, and even deciding what shoes to bring. Remember the journey begins long before you lock the front door behind you. It has certainly begun once you are in the car, on the train or wheels up at the airport. Don’t neglect that part of your adventure – make your flight more comfy, adjust your attitude about jet lag, reset your mind to the present, indulge yourself a little all along the way.

Unless you have decided to become a permanent nomad, there is of course always the return, the reentry, the reengaging with your own home life. However you feel about this, it is inevitable you will compare your travel to your more stationary existence and even the most seasoned traveler will always find a subtle change in their perspective. Whether it’s a revelation or an affirmation, maybe you make a resolution to keep nurturing yourself in whatever way your travel fed you.

So – enjoy these musings on travel strategies, music, food, cookbooks, recipes, and whatever other takeaways I can flow your way. Honestly, a lot of beauty can be found in the details if you stop to examine them.