J'adore voyager

I was just reading this blog article about travelling, and making the time for it.

I think my love of travelling stemmed from having done it so much since a young age, and from my mother's genes and ability to try new things, experience new cultures (and their food ;) ) and probably some other reasons that I can't think of right now.

I count myself as very very lucky and I'm not at all ungrateful for all the wonderful experiences I've had criss-crossing around the world. There are many parts I still haven't seen but I have been to almost 20 countries, and the majority of my world travels was done in my mid 20s.

They say that you can tell a lot about a person from the friends they have and when it comes to travelling, this is very true for my friends. They love travelling just as much as I do, if not more! I find that Facebook status reports are constantly filled with travel-related gossip.. such as "so-and-so has just booked a trip to such-and-such a place!", "so-and-so is eating dinner and watching the sunset by such-and-such a beach!" etc etc and accompanied by photos of course.

Over the Easter long weekend, I went to a friend's party where 90% of the conversation was about travels and sharing travel stories.

Frankly, I find it bizarre that there are people who don't like travelling. People who will make up excuses not to do it. I totally agree with the article. The more you put it off, the less likely it's going to happen. And best to do it while you don't have kids because if you don't do it now, you're definitely not going to do it after! I can see the benefits of travelling when you're in your 20s. You'll never be fitter at another age and travelling is definitely quite tiring.

My grandparents on my mother's side are in their 70s and 80s and still travel! Good on 'em I say!

Well, I had been feeling rather stressed, depressed and sad that I hadn't travelled in such a long time but certain problems/reasons prevented me from doing so. It's hard to explain but travelling for me is almost like breathing. If I don't do it often I feel exhausted and upset. It has been so hard to hear of tale after tale, week after week (or so it seems) of everyone else's travel tales yet having none of my own to share, for well over a year. And I'm not just talking about my friends but also my family members, professional acquaintances and random people I come across. It seemed that everybody I know (bar 1 or 2, and even those with kids) was going overseas several times a year! (and that is not an exaggeration).

So with that in mind, I am very excited because I am going on my first holiday in over a year! It's not overseas, it's not far away, it won't be flash and it's not for very long. But I definitely needed a break and needed to get out of Sydney for a while so I am super super excited and happy about that! :D

I'll be going in a few days' time (wanted to avoid the Easter holiday crowds) and I can't wait!

Another thing I have noticed with my friends (and myself too) is that travelling is addictive, it's like a drug. The more you have of it, the more you want. And if you haven't had it in a while you develop withdrawal symptoms.

Part of my plan in moving to France is that I want to maximise travel opportunities too. It's extremely difficult and expensive to do any overseas travel when you live in Australia, unfortunately. I hope to be able to do enough travel so that I never really have to go through those horrible withdrawal periods ;)