Passion No 5 – travelling

I ♥ travelling.

I ♥ trips. By plane. By train. By bus. By car. By bike. By foot.

I ♥ discovering new countries. New cities. New cultures. New food.

I guess my parents are to blame for my travel passion. They also travelled a lot and they always dragged us kids along. Sometimes we had to be bribed with lots of ice cream and sometimes games had to be invented to keep us going. But it has really taught us to be curious, to be open-minded and also a bit adventurous. Because on every trip something goes wrong and you just have to get over it pretty quickly.

According to the “Where I’ve been” app on Facebook I have just been to 7% of the world. Wow. I would have guessed it was more than that. Anyway, that is great because then there is more left for me to discover. ;-)

I always have a big Where-I-want-to-go list. Although I travel a lot, it doesn’t seem to get any shorter, because every time I have been somewhere, I have new ideas and new recommendations. Oh well, it is just one of those lifetime-projects of mine. I hope I never get tired of it. And I am very happy that Andi is a passionate traveller as well.

The next destinations on my Where-I-want-to-go list are (in no particular order):

• Japan – outside Tokio
• North Australia – Darwin to Broome with Bungle Bungles and Kimberleys
• Italy – always, again and again
• South Africa – not necessarily for the soccer world cup but for the amazing animals and landscapes
• Bavaria – the lakes where I spend so many of my childhood holidays and where my granny has a little house near the mountains

The latest place ticked off my Where-I-want-to-go list was: Queensland, Australia

Andi and I spend three wonderful weeks there in October. What a wonderful trip. We drove from Brisbane up to Cairns. We drove a lot. We camped. We snorkelled. We sailed in the Whitsundays. We hiked. We discovered gold. We saw amazing animals and plants. We meet wonderful people. And we ate beautiful seafood and fresh fruits. I rarely had a holiday as exciting and relaxing at the same time. Definitely worth doing!

I have no favourite country or city. In my opinion each is too unique to compare it with another. They all have their beautiful and fascinating places – sometimes they are easy to find, sometimes you need more time or luck, but they always exist somewhere – in a small alley way, in a hidden restaurant or in the house of a normal family. So keep on looking for that special place. It is definitely worth it.