A Promise to myself

Dit artikel is ook beschikbaar in het Nederlands.

This site is a promise.

2018 was a pretty special year for me, in more ways than one. Most importantly, it was the year I got married. My husband and I have been married for a little over a year now and my life isn’t actually that different (on the day of our marriage, we had already been together for 15 years and we had been living together for more than 9 years, so I guess we already knew each other pretty well 😉 ), but I always thought it would feel different, as if I finally needed to ‘grow up’ and make important decisions about how I see my future.

We went to Thailand for our honeymoon. Asia was a new continent for the both of us (not counting a weeklong all-inclusive holiday in Turkey) and it only made me realise how much of the world I haven’t seen yet. It was a completely new experience for me and made me hungry for more. (Honestly, this is only true for part of our honeymoon. While I definitely loved a lot of the things we saw and did in Thailand, I wasn’t super excited about the whole trip, but that’s a story for another time.)

One of Thailand’s beautiful white sand beaches

Less than three months later, I fell down the stairs in our home and broke my leg. I sustained an open tibia/fibula fracture (meaning I broke both bones in my leg and I had a small open wound) and I had to be operated and spent a few nights in the hospital (that doesn’t count as traveling though, does it? 😉 ). Of course this happened in June, so I couldn’t leave my house all summer. In fact, I was stuck at home for pretty much the rest of the year (thank God my company let me work from home, because – let me tell you – after two months of doing nothing, you’d be climbing the walls too – figure of speech obviously). As we speak, I’m still not able to walk long distances, and we’ll be leaving for Canada in three months to go hiking in the mountains, one of my better ideas, I guess…

Anyway, all of this got me thinking (surprisingly, being stuck at home with a broken leg really gives you the time to do that 😉 ): I have an amazing husband, wonderful friends and family, a decent job, a nice house and two adorable cats. I have a good life and I am grateful for all that, but I know I’m going to need something more to be truly happy.

I need to travel.

Just me, traveling the world…

The last couple of years my husband and I have done some amazing things. We’ve admired the only surviving ancient world wonder in Egypt, stood in the shadows of the tall skyscrapers in New York City, drove a rental car through the American Southwest on a truly epic road trip, hiked on top of a supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park, saw the biggest shopping mall, the most expensive fountain show and the highest building in the world in Dubai, walked side by side with Asian elephants in Thailand and strolled through many quaint streets of some of Europe’s most beautiful cities.

The problem with traveling the world like this, is that it’s highly addictive. You’re never really satisfied because there’s always more to see and explore.

“His boredom was like a nostalgia for the whole world. He was homesick for everywhere but here.”

Christopher Isherwood, The Memorial

I came across this quote on the internet and it suited me quite perfectly. So I started this low-key travel blog. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not going to be the next person to quit her job to travel the world. I like stability and security. I also like the money because, let’s face it, I’m not the backpacking-kind-of-traveler. I like some level of luxury while I’m on vacation. I also have no intention of making a living with this blog. I simply want to continue traveling the world and slowly crossing new locations off my bucketlist.

So this site is a promise. A promise to myself. A promise to never stop exploring.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.