My addiction

Where I'd rather be right now: hiking near the Mosel River to a castle in Germany!


I admit it, I'm addicted. I can't stop thinking about traveling! It started in middle school when I went to Italy and Greece for 10 days with my latin class. I remember thinking that there was no way my parents would let me go. I was in complete shock when my mom said, "Sure, we'll find a way!" She probably had no idea at the time that she was introducing me to a new addiction. I absolutely love the thrill of arriving in a new city and having no idea where anything is. I love trying all types of new food and getting lost in the tiny little streets that are so different than the ones we have here. I guess I should clarify the above statement and insert the word "foreign" between new and city. For some reason, traveling around the US just doesn't excite me. Part of it's the language factor. I'm simply fascinated by foreign languages. I love finding some kind of connection between two languages and I love thinking about the way languages evolved. It seems like something that couldn't happen today with the way our societies are all interwoven. It must take a truly isolated culture to develop a completely new language or even dialect. I even wonder if eventually there will be no southern, northern, midwestern, or any other accents in the US. Everyone travels around and moves around so often that soon we'll probably all just sound "American." Isn't it weird to think that we have an American accent when we speak English to the British or Australian? Anyways, I'm getting sidetracked...

Not counting several islands in the caribbean, I've really only been to western Europe. Three times, lots of different countries and cities. So I'm not exactly a world traveler yet. But I love to read about different places and to plan my next big vacation. When Eric and I get bored, we often ask each other lots of hypothetical questions like, "If you could fly to one city on each continent, which would you choose?" or "Quick, name the top 5 places you'd like to go right now!" And when I have free time at work I like to go to fodors.com and read the travel forums, or to tripadvisor.com and check out the best hotels in different cities. Oh yeah, and the travel chat every Monday at 2pm on the washingtonpost.com is one of my favorites! Plus I have a "travel notebook" in the works which contains clippings from different magazines and newspapers about what to see, where to eat, and where to stay in various places. I say "in the works" because right now it's just a basket full of clippings that have yet to make it into a notebook... but one day I'll get around to it. As of today here's a list of the places where I most want to go next:

1. Australia and New Zealand (hopefully this will happen soon since we have some friends getting married there and we really want to go to their wedding!)
2. Greek Islands (sea kayaking is on the top of my list for things to do there)
3. South Africa
4. Croatia
5. the Pacific coast of Canada
6. England (for the third time... I'm a bit infatuated! More about that maybe in another post.)
7. Costa Rica
8. Denmark
9. Japan
10. Brasil

But for now, since I have no available funds or extra vacation days, I'll settle for a road trip down to Charleston, SC to see lots of family and friends, a day trip to New York with my sister, a girls weekend at the beach, and a wedding in Boston! Those all sound really nice actually! Traveling to other countries is fun, but it's no substitute for time spent with those you love and miss!