How well do you know home?

Seeing home before you leave it

16 years ago, September 23rd 2007 No: 1 Msg: #19897 Delete Edit

B Posts: 11.5K

I've spent a number of years living overseas, but only belatedly in between the overseas years travelled round the country I grew up in, and came to really appreciate it.
Are you well travelled domestically, or can you think only of the next overseas destination?
When you travel, does part of home go with you?
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16 years ago, September 24th 2007 No: 2 Msg: #19933 Delete Edit

Beth and Craig
Elizabeth Christie

B Posts: 37

We knew in our future we would be adventure bound in other countries and felt we ought to have seen our own country to properly appreciate any other. One must first know themselves before they can truly know anyone else? My husband and I took 10 weeks to travel across Canada in 2001. While we saw every province and the Yukon, it was not nearly enough time in any location.

We then moved to New Brunswick for 5 years, and that gorgeous province was still revealing its secrets when we left in July. Now we are living in China, and being almost as large as Canada, I know we will be in the same situation of never being able to "see it all". The fun lies in meeting other Canadian travellors and expats, and being able to discuss the sites, smells, sounds of their region of Canada. It connects us so quickly and intimately.

My goal now is to know my region of China where I live and work as intimately as possible. We live in Tianjin and while there is the desire to go to Beijing every weekend, and visit all the world famous sites, we are taking our time to know our new home. . . and its amazing. I have strong wanderlust, but I also have a strong desire to make many places feel like home.

Cheers
Beth Reply to this

16 years ago, September 24th 2007 No: 3 Msg: #19955 Delete Edit

Maribel and Pete
Maribel & Pete Penichet

B Posts: 14

Hi Jo
What Pete and I have found out, when we do come home, it makes you appreciate the things we take for granted. One SA trip in 85, to Peru for 3 weeks, when we arrived in the US, 1 st comment Pete made was, we complain about our road system, but wow, what a pleasure to drive here.
I have lost count on how many countries we have visited, but every time we come home, we are thankful we live here. And yes, we sometimes get homesick! We miss our kids and grands!
As for countries, Peru has so much, we spent 3 weeks not near enough time. Masupichu was a delight.
Spain, 3 weeks there as well, rent a car, drive the country. We try to see as much as possible of the country we are
in and mix with the locals.
This past year, we spent 8 months traveling the Eastern Caribbean. We are headed back in Nov, and will spend another 7 months or so, traveling back North. The boat is great, gives you your bed, shower, travel between islands and you cook in the boat. So is relatively less money.
I would like to travel to China someday in the future, we will see, for now enjoy and let us know about China.
Safe travels, Reply to this

16 years ago, September 25th 2007 No: 4 Msg: #20033 Delete Edit

Susin
Susin Thoroughgood

B Posts: 40

Australia's pretty far away from the rest of the world so most of the travelling I've done, before this year, has just been in Australia. I've been to every capital city and driven along the coast from Adelaide to Noosa, but I've never seen the centre. Never seen the Australian desert!

After meeting a few travellers this year that have seen Uluru and the Olgas and slept underground in Cooper Pedy I felt a little ashamed - they're definitely on my to-do list when I get home next year!

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16 years ago, September 26th 2007 No: 5 Msg: #20035 Delete Edit

ilchicag
Liz

B Posts: 62

I feel like I'm pretty well travelled in the US. I've been to a lot of places here. And I'll keep travelling the US as much as I can. In a country as large and diverse as the US, it's so easy to find new and exciting places; New York City surely isn't Charleston, South Carolina, and not northern California, but they're all great in their own right.

That said, I've actually never travelled abroad/overseas. I've been to Canada twice... but as far as major trips, my trip to Italy/Europe this December will be my first time using a passport. And I'm so excited. I'll probably take a lot of "home" with me as far as being American, but only because that's what I know thus far. But because I've been over so much of the US, and love travelling to other parts of the country, I don't feel like I'll be bringing Chicago, Illinois, with me. Right now, I don't feel like I have a single place as a home. Maybe that will be different when I come home from a place like Italy, maybe not. Either way, I'm looking forward to finding out. Reply to this

16 years ago, September 26th 2007 No: 6 Msg: #20036 Delete Edit

Beth and Craig
Elizabeth Christie

B Posts: 37

Maybe Canada will soon feel more "abroad" once we have to use passports to cross the CAN/US border? Reply to this

16 years ago, September 26th 2007 No: 7 Msg: #20038 Delete Edit

ilchicag
Liz

B Posts: 62

Maybe!

I guess I felt more at home in Canada on my last trip (I was in Quetico Provincial Park for a week) because there were more similarities there with where I've grown up--I spent 8 years living in Wisconsin as well as my time in Chicago, so Atikokan was more reminiscent of my home there as opposed to say, Southern California. I'd love to see more of Canada though.

I really do think though the more we travel the more the world becomes our home, and the meaning of the word "abroad" becomes more and more obscure. At least that is what I strive for. Reply to this

16 years ago, September 26th 2007 No: 8 Msg: #20043 Delete Edit

travellingmum
Bobbie

B Posts: 109

As we have just had our third daughter in the last year so we have been a little more restricted to Australia. In fact most of my blogs are about Australia.

But as I said on my profile that after being inspired by reading so many travel blogs I felt that I should just get up and get doing. And that is what I have done. This site has given me a better perspective on where I live and now I have changed my profile message to

Where ever you are right at this moment... look at it with a travellers heart

Though I must say I yearn to go overseas more and my mother travels in a mobile home around australia and says she will never go overseas (claustophobic fear in the plane - i think) and she says there is so much to see in Australia that why need to bother going overseas. So us children and her always fight over the advantages of going overseas versus visiting your own country.

I think both are needed to broaden your mind. I wouldnt exchange my oveseas trips for anything, and I think it helps you grow.

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16 years ago, September 26th 2007 No: 9 Msg: #20098 Delete Edit

CanadianViking
Josh N

N Posts: 42

I know my country well, but not as well as I'd like (I've visited 6 of 10 provinces, but I only REALLY know the West).

So , before I jet off to see the world, I'm planning a cross-country odyssey to really connect with my own country before I leave it for the world. Reply to this

16 years ago, September 27th 2007 No: 10 Msg: #20112 Delete Edit

lonelybiker
Alex

B Posts: 2

I have never learnt how nice my hometow was since I left .
Dali ,my hometown wherever I go you are always in my heart! Reply to this

16 years ago, September 28th 2007 No: 11 Msg: #20204 Delete Edit

Mikey M
Mike Meggiato

B Posts: 325

The plenty of places i have not been in the UK, but i think i have seen more of it then some people know, as i have lived and visited Scotland, visited Northern Ireland and various parts of wales and i have lived and visited a fair few places in England. The is maybe more i could see, but maybe thats for another time to discover these places. My calling now is the rest of the world.

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16 years ago, October 1st 2007 No: 12 Msg: #20264 Delete Edit

Ellen Around the World
Ellen

B Posts: 102

I'm guilty of never having visited Western Australia. I've travelled extensively everywhere else around Oz and worked all along the East Coast - but when it comes to the west I hang my head in shame!! Bizarrely more expensive to travel to WA, than to Asia... Reply to this

16 years ago, October 4th 2007 No: 13 Msg: #20454 Delete Edit

JonathanCampion
Jonathan Campion

B Posts: 972

Who needs spaceships, when there are enough incredible places on earth to keep any traveller going throughout their life!

To my shame I can't see the appeal of the country I was born in from an adventure point of view, so while I'm young I want to see as many different ones as possible. I suppose we get more drawn towards home as we get older, and start to appreciate the things we couldn't wait to get away from! Reply to this

16 years ago, October 16th 2007 No: 14 Msg: #21007 Delete Edit

Tristanbul
Tristan

B Posts: 1

I've seen the lower 48 in the US, and I had seen over 40 of them before I went abroad for the first time. I was lucky to be born with parents who value travel as a means of education and life experience... it's just a shame my father has no desire to leave the country, or I might have seen even more with them when I was younger.

So, 48 states and 7 countries in 18 years... I think I'm off to a good start.

Tristan Reply to this

16 years ago, October 19th 2007 No: 15 Msg: #21170 Delete Edit

mnmhull
The Many Adventures of M&M

B Posts: 8

My family does not really value travel so my first 20 years of my life were spent in Ohio without really ever leaving. After that I saw as much of the States as I could, exploring pretty much the entire South and seeing the big cities (NYC, San Francisco, etc). Now I'm married to an Army soldier and we live in Germany and I'm taking advantage of every opportunity to get out and see Europe. We've seen quite a bit of Germany so far but still have a lot to go (we've only been here 6 months though!) and have also been to Spain several times, Italy several times, France, Scotland, and Morocco. I think seeing a fair amount of the US has given me enough experiences to really appreciate the differences (good and bad) that are in other countries but experiencing other countries also makes me appreciate certain things about the States. I really think you need one to be able to see the other for its full potential. Reply to this

16 years ago, November 2nd 2007 No: 16 Msg: #21867 Delete Edit

jubeedoo
where are you? : : tales from abroad

B Posts: 13

My mother and father instilled the love of travel and the love of our country in us from an early age. I suppose a benefit of its isolation is that New Zealand is the first place most kiwis travel around, but my parents definitely took it further than most, taking us on short breaks and extended holidays all over the place, so that although I had seen a good deal of my own country, my first overseas trip (to Australia, of course!) wasn't until I was sixteen.

It's only this past couple of years that I have really started to see the world away from the Pacific, and I am having a ball. I think that it is making more of an impression on me to see sights and visit countries that I have read and heard about for so long. Home is definitely always with me, and forms part of the experience of seeing new sights, forming a basis of comparison between home and abroad, whether somewhere is completely alien to me or has a similarity to some part of my homeland.

There are places in New Zealand I still want to travel, and when I eventually leave Europe I am sure I will have just as much fun discovering them as I have in visiting a new place over here! Reply to this

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