Because Mytravelroom is a travel website, I thought, by way of introduction you’d enjoy this feature blog about what motivates me and millions of other people to travel.
Why do we want to travel – what is it about travel that provides so much pleasure (and sometimes pain) to people?
I don’t claim to have the answers, but for me, travel is magical.
I still wonder about being able to sit in a metal capsule thousands of feet in the air and then, within hours, land in a place that isn’t home.
Of course, the journey could be on the deck of a magnificent ship or driving a car on a road trip. But flying is still the most popular and, of course, convenient form of getting to your desired destination.
A destination that is often the polar opposite of home. This is especially so if traveling to the other side of the world. Arriving on a different day in an opposite time frame in a completely different culture and environment becomes a wonderous and mind-boggling experience.
And then, of course, there is the arrival at a destination that, although you may have dreamt of and hankered to visit, is still completely foreign and sometimes proves to be out of you comfort zone.
Or just simply too different from what was visualized. Let alone tuning into the nuances and gestures of a foreign language.
So, my thoughts on why I delight in travel are:
I Love…
Experiencing different environments. Places where I have no idea how I’m meant to behave and where to go to find out. Of course, just people-watching from a café chair or sitting on a park bench can provide a ton of cues and clues as to how to “be” in the strangeness that surrounds.
Different food. So, what better way to try new “yum’s” than to eat like a local. See my Gourmet Italy story under the Gourmet section of Mytravelroom.
Authenticity. Real is my benchmark for everything in life, most especially travel. When I eat French food in a French café or restaurant – I want to eat French food. (even the fries). It is the same in Italy, the USA, Australia, the South Pacific Islands. Anywhere. Everything tastes different, looks appetising, and challenges my food boundaries every day.
Anonymity. Gives me the freedom to “be.” The feeling of being a stranger in a strange land. Watch, observe, absorb, relax, and remember.
Smells. Even the smell of open drains in a hot country. I know! But that pungent smell mixed with wafts of incense and exotic cooking evokes discovery. Or better still, the wafting scent of Frangipani blossoms on a balmy night in, say, Hawaii. Or just as appealing, the whiff of citrusy pine from the many Cyprus trees growing straight and grand in Europe. The sense of something different, something exciting, something unknown.
Music, art, and reading. What better way to immerse in these things than when travelling to foreign lands.
Experiencing the unexpected. Such as seeing brightly coloured resin collages in Cortona, Italy. Beautifully handmade, painted linen cushions in France. Smooth, fragrant beauty creams cultivated from indigenous seaweed in the gorgeous Fiji Islands, and so on.
Magnificent buildings and architecture. In each and every town and city. The stories behind them. For example, The Empire State Building in NYC was built during the 1930s Great Depression and, as a result, kept many otherwise unemployed men, in work.
Random street art. Each artist provides a unique insight into their city’s soul.
Street musicians. Everywhere, streets and Piazzas are enlivened by music. Usually, a small string quartet, a solitary flutist, or someone playing another instrument lost in their music world providing beautiful, atmospheric entertainment for passersby.
The collection of museums, art galleries, the walks, the beaches, the hills, the wine, oh and have I mentioned the food. And the people. The clothes, the languages, the unique culture of every country visited, or every trip taken. Even the ones at home are a delightful source of discovery.
See and read more:
Jane from Mytravelroom travelled with, and recommends;
www.airnewzealand.co.nz – Auckland – Brisbane return
www.fijiairways.com – Auckland – Fiji return
www.hawaiianairways.co.nz – Honolulu – Auckland NZ
www.britishairways.com/travel/home/public/en_nz – Rome – London
https://www.united.com/ – NYC – Honolulu
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Source for this story’s Category title “the Wind Beneath My Wings” is from the song written and sung by Bette Midler
