To a traveler, there are two types of travel.
Touristing — which is staying at nice hotels, taking cabs, looking at sites.
And traveling — which is doing your best to truly experience the places you go. A tourist can say he's been somewhere; a traveler can actually tell you about it. I'm a traveler-type so these are links to help others who would like to go that route.
But any type of travel is usually good. Travel is a great thing when it opens your eyes. It lets you see life from other perspectives, to see what other countries and cultures have to offer, to learn history in more of a first-hand way. And so much more.
I highly recommend hitting the road as a traveler — at least in part.
I'm a traveler...
My father once heard me telling a relative some of my travel stories part-way through my trip.
Frankly, he was not in favor of my travels.
But he commented that evening, that he'd been to several of the places I'd been talking about, only he'd been on tours, and he didn't gain as much knowledge of the places. He was surprised at how much I'd learned on my own, and at how much I'd retained. That evening he understood travel and what I was doing.
The first time I traveled — really traveled —I left my home in NYC by myself with a one-way ticket to London and spent about 3 years traveling. Traveling alone opened me up to meeting great people to travel or hang out with everywhere I went. Families took me in or I got together with other travelers to explore. By doing so, I got to experience places, sites, history, and culture — not just through my own eyes, but through the eyes of others from other cultures and backgrounds. Family and home-friends expected that I was lonely. Not at all.
I returned home to the U.S.A., not when a calendar told me to, but when I felt I was tired and no longer absorbing and appreciating what I was experiencing.
A very personal admission: I always expected to meet a great man who’d share my travel-created 4-D views of the world and travel with him. Somehow, that hasn't happened yet.
So, now in the autumn of 2011, as I once again as I find myself between great apartments, I’m taking advantage of the opening and I’ll be hitting the road again. I’m older now, and I’ve had quite a career that I can continue as I travel, so this trip will be quite different from the last one. I’m very excited!
I’m not sure how much or my trip I’ll share here. I’m looking into venues at which I can share the various aspects of this experience. As I write elsewhere, I’ll post the links here for sure.
Photos of my world travels
Each of my photos represent a small part of the world's possibilities. Of course, I can look at each and tell you stories about my experiences at each of these places, and many more. That's a great feeling; one I wish everyone to know.
Before I traveled I was a professional photographer. I started to scan some of my travel photos (via UMax scanner and HP G85) — an put some up on this site. However, I have many, many more pics to scan. I really need to bring them to 1888ScanVan. I love these guys and their service. Meanwhile, I'm packing them up again and hitting the road again. It's been a long time between real travels.
Some fun...
How good is your knowledge of the world? This isn't really a great test because the map is tiny, but it's still kind of fun. Have a try.
Note: I don't typically embed other sites into mine, but I like this game and site. However, this annoyingly leaves an overlay that will not go away, so you'll need to refresh your browser window when you've had enough of it.