What inspired your first big trip or put the wanderlust in you?

When I was 8 I told my auntie that one day I was just going to pack a bag and see the world. I didn't care where I went I just wanted to see everything.

I dropped out of school whilst in 6th form after being bullied by an A-level teacher. I gave up on school and spent most of my time doing drugs. I left my Mum's house and lived with a boyfriend for a while, I didn't speak to my parents for months and then one day my Mum shows up on my doorstep with a plane ticket and a job opportunity on the Tall Ships.

I spent weeks sailing the Med, I scrubbed toilets, mopped floors and got horribly seasick but I also met the most amazing people, students, graduates, people who've spent their whole lives at sea. I watched the sun rise over the ocean one morning while on watch and knew that I had to change my life. I found in myself the hope that I had at 8 years old. The Tall Ships changed my life and instilled in me the sense that to see is to live. For me that seeing is travelling

On returning to the UK I went back to school, got my degree and packed that bag. I don't think I'll ever give up now!

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Ok Ok Ok. I started this thread about a month ago and never got around to telling my own little piece of history. I think I'd rather hear everyone else!

So here it is in a nutshell: When I was about 12 years old I got this chain letter in the mail from a friend. Remember the days you'd get those and there would be a list of addresses on there...you send a postcard to the first person on the list...rotate the names and then somehow you should end up with a zillion postcards from all over the world?

I noticed one of the names on the chain letter was from a girl in England. I'd always been interested in travel because of an aunt that traveled Europe extensively. I wrote this English girl and we became pen-pals. I was 12 and she was about 20. I imagine she thought she was humoring some little American girl with her tales of daily life abroad.

When I was about 15 years old I asked mom and dad if I could go visit this girl in England (Corinna from High Wycombe). They hesitated at the idea of me traveling alone and staying with a stranger and her family, naturally. Finally they agreed I could go if I saved all the money myself. I came from a town with a population of less than 5,000 and the only place I could get a job was McDonald's--so I did; making a whole $4.16 per hour! In the summer I got a job washing dogs too. It took a whole year to save the $800 I needed for the plane ticket.

After that I was hooked. You put a girl at 16 years old on a plane by herself for her first trip abroad to stay with people she's never met and its either sink or swim. I swam. I loved it. That's pretty much how it all started. I remember being in England and wishing I'd never have to go home and the thing I missed most was my Veruca Salt CD!

I came home and went back to work washing dogs and serving French fries and did it again the next summer.

Now, all these years later, I'm completely and totally addicted to traveling. And it all started with that chain letter when I was 12.

That's my story. 😊 Reply to this

Well I just joined up here. I am heading out for Cartagena, Colombia tomorrow! I have always travelled since i was a kid. With my family, we took trips all around the United States. However, as i began to take trips by myself, I began to really become addicted to the challenge and quite frankly, being alone.

Of course, when we travel or do anything we are never really alone but outside of the normal environment is what i mean.

The bug really got me after i did a trip to Machu Picchu in 2009. Going to a third world country is much different than going to Yellowstone or Miami. After having just been let go from a corporate job, I thought i was going to go to Peru to teach Spanish. Two months and many wonderful unexpected stories later, my life changed. That was when i caught the bug for sure.

Now i am off for another two month trip that starts tomorrow. As i ran some errands today and lowered my head to fend off the blistering wind in my face, i relaxed in the knowing that tomorrow or day after I will be shinning my face to the sun! Who knows what awaits me this time. Reply to this

Mell add your story!!

Indeed, I have been meaning to add my story. Here it is.

When I was 19, I moved from a village in the middle of Ireland, to London, England. I went to a convent school, and was so sheltered from the world, that I had never even had a Chinese takeaway, never had a McDonalds, and that is just the food part. I hadnt done anything worldly at all.

When I arrived in London, I soon got tired of the things my friend from same village in Ireland wanted to spend her time and money on, clothes, pizza hut, hollywood blockbusters... For sure, those things are fun enough, but even a girl from a rural village can get bored with them, if all wages, and weekend time are to be spend on them every weekend.

So, I started saving up my money to do something, without knowing what that something would be. I saved and saved and my friend whinned at me and about my stinginess and told everybody we met that I am stingy. I wasnt really, I just did not want to do the things she wanted anymore, so kept my money until I would discover what I wanted to do with it instead. I spent my time doing overtime at work and getting more money together that I didnt spend, because I just knew I would be doing something with it one day. I looked at expenseive clothes in shops, and realised that wasnt what would be worthy of my savings. I looked at package holidays in travel agents windows, and knew that wasnt it either. I looked at expensive cosmetics and hairdressers, gyms and spas, and knew that wasnt it either.

This working and saving went on for months. Then by bad luck or incredible luck as it turned out, I was thrown out of the room I lived in, above a bar. I had been working part time in the bar, and got the room in return. Bar owners in London are pretty tempermental and I was not the first of last bar employee to find myself made homeless one night when bar owner got drunk and decided to take the drop in sales, or business not doing well out on you unreasonably.

I then phoned an very cheap place to stay in a rough part of SE London. It was a place owned by an Australian backpacker. It was a dump of a place, that was know to residents as the black hole of London. The Australian backpacker was doing it up to make fancy appartment, but in the meantime it was being rented out to backpackers who where working in London. I was fascinated by their travel stories and felt so untravelled. I wanted to travel too, but didnt know how. They would advise me, and show me travel books, but I still couldnt figure out how to get it all going. Then an Australian guy same age as I was, who had been travelling accross Europe and was now working in Londone moved in. He is my ex. One day, I told him I wanted to go with him, on his upcomming overland trip accross Europe, accross the iron curtain, and then south to sunny Greece. I told him, I have saved up the money and asked him if he thinks I have enough. He said, I have more than he has even, so certainly it is enough. So, off we went together after a few more months of living together and working in London. On that trip, I was totally won over to the backpacking life, and obsessively spend all my money on it for years. I only got a bit more balanced about my life in my middle 20s. Reply to this

Great thread Anastasia 😊

In my younger years, I used to be in the Cub Scouts and then the Scouts for many years. We went camping several times a year which is something I really looked forward to. My family weren't rich by any means but we did manage to purchase a small caravan and did at least one trip a year to various places around England and Scotland.

Finally, at the age of 19 I decided to take my first steps outside of the UK and applied to work on a kibbutz in Israel, that story you will find in null blog 665151.
I spent a total of 15 month living there.

On one of the kibbutzim, I met a Swedish girl who subsequently became my wife a year later. We went to Sweden and then back to the UK, but our yearning to return to Israel meant that we went back again in 1990, from London to Haifa overland by bus! This story I will cover some other time in one of my future blogs.

Then ol' Saddam got delusions of grandeur which had both sets of parents demanding that we come home before all hell broke loose in the Middle East. I subsequently moved to Sweden where I spent 9 years of my life.

We made a few European trips during this time, but my wife finally decided to break her marriage vows, went Jehovah on me and we finally divorced in 2005. Shortly after this, I met a wonderful girl who was admittedly, much too young for me, but we got along so well, that I decided to give it a go.

Having got divorced I took virtually nothing from my old house being as I had two children who at that time were still under 18 and there was no way I was going to break up their home. Having to go through the pain and heartache of a divorce was enough for them (My father walked out on us when I was 12 so I know how it feels).

Anyway, my new girlfriend and I started to build a home together from scratch and after 2 years of hard work and graft we finally had a beautiful apartment which we shared so happily together and a good home where my children could come and stay with us at the weekend. Then, just as I was getting some stability back into my life after my divorce and everything started to feel 'perfect', the rug was pulled out from under my feet and she left me.

I'd never felt so much pain in my life and one night, a few weeks after she left, I drank about 20 bottles of beer, a whole litre of vodka and threw every tablet I could find in the house down my throat in an attempt to relieve myself of my agony. Thankfully, my landlord found me and got me to hospital in time.

I can't believe that I was so stupid. I love life so much and would never ever normally consider doing something like that. I had always been such a strong person, someone who had always been a shoulder for everyone else to cry on, yet it is at moments like this where you realise that you are only human and that we all have weaknesses just waiting there in the wings, ready to hit you where it really hurts and when you least expect it.

I have always been a very confident, outward going person, even before this incident, however, I feel that it was that moment of my life that has set in stone, how I will live the rest of my life, by making the most of every day, enjoying life as much as I can and of course, most importantly, travelling and seeing as much of this beautiful world of ours as possible.

Not having been born with a silver spoon in my mouth I have had to fight for everything and work hard to obtain the life that I have always wanted. Even now, I still sometimes have to struggle to do the things that I want but at least I know that when I do travel, I appreciate it so much more simply because I have worked so hard for it.

I like to think of travel as an expression of individualism and something that each of us experiences in different ways. I know I've said this before, but I feel that I can't emphasise enough that as human beings, we are the sum of our experiences and the real riches in life are those that we acquire on our journey through life and not those that we horde away in vaults or bank accounts.
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In response to: Msg #149773

Nick,

I am always, always impressed with your openness. I am glad that you have found love. I am glad you are a part of this travel family. Your stories, views, comments and opinions make this world a better place.

Not a thing wrong with working hard....as you say.

I appreciate it so much more

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Nick - wow thanks for your story - glad you are still here so we can enjoy your travels - and Anastasia great thread.

Like Shane I grew up in Australia in the 60s and 70s being dragged allover the coast and across the country while my father dived for tropical fish for the aquarium trade. If we werent perched on a sandune camped in the middle of nowhere waiting for Dad to surface we were driving across the nullabor. Like Merry Jo, Instead of Nat Geo's every sunday we would watch Jacques Cousteau documentaries...and that perhaps is why I spend my life chasing Calypso.
I left Aus on my 18th bday on a package tour to HK, found a LOT of money, became a hippy, ended up backpacking around, came back to Aus and hitched and worked my way around the country until I married an underworld crime figure and lived a very tarantinosque life for a lot of years. Marrying underworld figures generally never works out so I found myself at uni as a single mum doing a double degree at 30. Travel halted for those years. Just after I finished uni I was offered a completely free trip to dive in Papua New Guinea which I couldnt refuse and off kicked the travel bug again. My ex and I share custody which allows me to travel. When I came back from PNG I - also like Shane - realised my govt. job with its awesome leave and entitlements allowed me at least 4 trips a year overseas so now Im exploring again.
My kids are now teenagers, I have an income and a job that allows me to travel and owning racehorses is great for a while, owning fast cars is great for a while, but im really only pretending to be me if Im not travelling.
Its my soul food. Reply to this

Here is a blog that answers your question. #1: Why I travel
This well traveled travel blogger admits to the wanderlust. Reply to this

In response to: Msg #149833 This is one fascinating thread! I've been waiting for a moment where I could squirrel away and read everyone's posts word for word. I wasn't planning on adding anything myself...but I think Anastasia78 may have thrown me under the rhetorical travel bus.

One pivotal moment? My life has literally been shaped by travel. As a youngster, I didn't have a chance really, my father was a daredevil and my mum was a thrill seeker.

I wish everyone on this planet had the capability of travel. It is a privilege I have never once taken for granted. Seeing our world makes you different from others. It balances you, your innocence and wonderment nourished, you become a kinder soul who is tolerant, grateful, a minimalist. Adaptation is one of my most favourite traits, it makes me 'a better everything' in my daily life. I am a 40-something chameleon lizard, including the googly eyes and funky strut.

But wanderlust can be dangerous, as a teen I had a streak of independence that would scare the bajeezers out of any regular parent...mine just rolled their eyes. By 15, I was a punk rock girl living on my own, always hell bent on feeding that ansias de conocer. One night on a whim I decided to go to Mexico. Linda, my equally radical friend joined me, we commandeered her Dad's clunker and headed south. It broke down in northern California, Linda and I couldn't bear the idea of aborting our trip midway, so we hitch hiked the remainder of the way. Picture two 17 year olds with no money or morals, we slept on the beach, ate fish tacos, and should have died several times over. Linda ended up staying, married a Mexican several years later and now is a citizen. Me, I went home after 3 months, 30 pounds lighter and party weary. My parents thought I had been working at a ski resort in Banff the entire time.... I had a hard time explaining the tan.

When I think back to that period of my life, I can't believe I survived...especially now that I know what I know. I have learned the world is a cruel place. People are evil, and life can hand you a shit sandwich when you least expect it. Luckily, wanderlust is viable. I live each moment like it's my last. Reply to this

As a child my parents used to take on road trips a bit and I always loved seeing new places so I have always wanted to travel overseas but as an adult I just could never get my act together to save.

Then I met me now husband who I chose to marry over travelling and we went on to have children (2.)

My husband does a bit of travelling with work occassionally (mostly to Asia) and I finally admitted how jealous and envious I was of him travelling so with his help I finally decided to do it, travel overseas.

I am off to the UK in March and April as well as planning a few more trips in the next few years.

I have always wanted to travel overseas but until now didn't have the confidence to do it alone. Also as a saty at home mum i don't earn an income so didn't feel it was right for me to go but my husband is a very wonderful man that no only has taken time off work to look after the children for 3.5 weeks, he has helped me save for this too. Reply to this