The world is an exciting place I told a publisher the other week. I was sitting at a chair in a room with a view over the Thames and had three travel guidebooks on the table in front of me.
Why?
Because:
1. I always think there’s something new to see.
I’ve travelled a lot. Returned to many places, but still I feel like the list is always expanding. If I don’t want to make a Thelma and Louise inspired road trip along the Californian coast, I want to ride in the mountains in Kazakhstan, or eat my way through Iran. It never stops and the world just keep throwing these ideas at me.
2. There’s always something different to see
It doesn’t even matter if I’ve been to a place, a beach, a city or a country before. I like to return.
I’ve been to Budapest at least eight times in my life. I have lived, worked, and studied in Argentina on three different occasions in my life and an obsession of New York City brought me back multiple times. There was the club on the Buda side I’d never been to. The Spa at the Kempinski hotel I’ve never visited. Or it was the horseback riding in La Cumbre, Córdoba I never tried. Or the part of Brooklyn I didn’t get the chance to explore. Maybe it was a Saturday and all the Jewish shops in Williamsburg were closed.
3. There’s always something new to learn
You think you get older and reach a point where you have all skills you need. I’ve travelled independently for more than ten years. I’ve had a mobile stolen from a tourist bus from Phuket to Bangkok in Thailand, missed an Air Asia flight in the Philippines, almost missed a flight from JFK to Copenhagen because I was so sure of the time I didn’t double check the itinerary and I’ve deliberately been late to check-in at Heathrow because I knew the British Airways flight was delayed. Ah yes, there was also that time I was going to Israel and get told my passport is valid for less than six months and I can’t go. You would have thought that this has taught me a thing or two. I.e. don’t leave things till the last minute. But no, instead I’ve become blasé about the whole thing. So even after ten years of travelling I still need to learn how to balance spending as little time on the airport as possible with actually not missing the plane.
4. There are always new people to meet or get to know better
If I haven’t travelled or studied abroad I wouldn’t have Argentinians, Mexican, Americans, Brits and the odd Slovene in my circle of friends. There’s always that next person to meet, to get to know. To have philosophical discussions with. To talk with you about growing up in a Jewish suburb on Long Island or to make pizza with in a flat north of La Canada in Córdoba and sharing life stories.
My Maddy Travel 