My blog brother, @MrFresh, wrote a post yesterday sharing the places he’s travelled to. That inspired me to reflect on my own travel habits.
We used to travel a lot. Our goal was to travel to at least one new country each year. It was easier to make that happen when we lived in Germany with easy access to mainland Europe. On weekends or during holidays, we could simply hop in the car and drive to a new country. When we moved back to the States, our foreign travel essentially came to a halt, apart from our family trips to England to visit the in-laws.
I have seen quite a bit of the U.S. I’ve been to 30 out of the 50 States (60%).
Once we moved back to Europe, we restarted our goal of visiting a new country every year. That slowed down a bit as our priorities shifted to raising kids. We did still travel, but not as much. Then came the pandemic, and everything changed. We went abroad this year for the first time since the lock down officially ended. We didn’t go anywhere new. We did a beach holiday in Mallorca, a country we’ve been to many times. Mallorca is the perfect place to chill.
[FGAL id=10801]
@MrFresh inspired me to plot out the countries I’ve visited, and in the spirit of getting ready to set goals for 2023, I’ve added foreign travel to my list. I need to finish off Western Europe and then see the rest of Eastern Europe.
China
After watching a couple Youtube videos on China, I really want to go there, well, when the current unrest settles back down. China looks like a very fascinating place. And I’m a big fan of Chinese philosophy. My favourite modern Chinese philosopher is Lin Yutang. His book, The Importance of Living, is one of my favorite modern Chinese philosophy books. And of course I dig the classics, the Tao Te Ching, and the writings of Chuang Tzu. My two favourite Chinese poets are Li Po and Tu Fu. As a spiritual being, I lean heavily toward Taoism as a practice.
I also want to do more domestic travel in 2023. I’ve recently renewed my interest in medieval history. England is ripe with medieval history. 2023 will see the return of my passion for travel and travel photography/videography. I have an idea for 360 video project I want to launch in the new year as well that will involve lots of getting out and about and exploring more of the history of this island.
If you’re interested in plotting out the countries you’ve visited, here’s cool site that will generate an interactive map for you.