My Obsession with Traveling

The first vacation I remember going on was a Disney cruise to Mexico with my family and family friends when I was around 4. Since that was many years ago, I do not remember most of it, but it was the trip that got me into traveling. Every summer after that, my family and family friends went on a week long vacation together to various places such as: Boston, Yellowstone National Park, Alaska, Jamaica, New York, Chicago, Florida, Arizona and many others. Having the opportunity to travel to all of the places we did gave made me realize the love I have for seeing the world outside my hometown of Dayton. I also got the chance to make memories with my family that I will remember for the rest of my life.

One example of this was when my family and I were on a cruise and had the chance to zip line for the first time through the wilderness of Alaska. At one point in the zip line tour, one of the tour guides said, “This is a rare type of tree called the bacon tree. We call it that because not only does it look like strips of bacon are on the tree, but it also smells like bacon”. Being the gullible young tween I was at the time, I believed him and proceeded to smell the tree, which to my discovery did not smell like bacon at all. For whatever reason, that memory has stuck with my family for years and they still bring it up to this day. Another story I remember was when my family was at Yellowstone National Park and we decided to take a tour on horseback through one of the parks. To no surprise, we spotted a bison on one part of the tour, which sparked a reaction with the horse my brother was riding. The horse was so scared that it turned around and ran back with my brother still on it’s back. My brother is not a fan of horses to say the least. That is the thing about travel though: it gives you the chance to make everlasting memories with the ones you love most. I have been fortunate to be able to travel as much as I have so far in my life and make those memories, especially recently.

My junior year of high school, my brother studied abroad in Ireland for a semester. I am convinced he did this just so my parents and I could come visit him because my dad has always wanted to go. Over my spring break, my parents and I flew to Ireland, met up with my brother and boarded a bus for a guided bus tour around the country. It was the first time I had ever been to Europe and I was soon immersed in a completely different culture. Unfortunately, despite the lowered drinking age in Europe, I was still too young to drink legally but I did get the chance to try Guinness fresh from the factory and I was not too disappointed that I could not drink. The orange soda, was delicious, though, so I stuck with that the entire trip. Over the course of that week, I saw some of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. The scenery and landmarks in Ireland are breathtaking and something I will never forget.

One sad part of the trip was the fact that I tend to fall asleep when I am in a car for too long and since driving across an entire country requires many hours of driving, I fell asleep frequently. Despite the excessive sleeping, I still got to experience an entirely different part of the world with my favorite people, which is something that is still special to me. My family and explored castles, kissed the Blarney Stone and stood on the edge of the Cliffs of Moher, and that was only the southern part of Ireland. I am still trying to convince them to go back as a family in order to see the northern part and complete the tour. That summer, I did get the chance to go back to Europe, but sadly not to Ireland.

My grandma is a travel connoisseur and I have gone on a few mini trips with her before, but the summer before my senior year, we booked a Mediterranean cruise. A few weeks after we booked the trip, one of my grandma’s friends and her granddaughter, Alison decided to book the same cruise and join us on the vacation. So in July of 2016, I was on on my way to achieve my dream of visiting the Mediterranean coast of Europe.

The cruise started in Venice, Italy, where we got lost too many times and my grandma got food poisoning from lunch. Fortunately, the food poisoning passed quickly as we continued our travels to Zadar, Croatia, and following that was my favorite part of the trip: Kotor, Montenegro. Kotor is a secluded part of Montenegro that was previously fortified to protect from invaders. The seclusion and submersion of the town made it that much more peaceful, let alone beautiful. Alison and I made it to the top of one of the mountains, where I saw one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen and will always remember. After Montenegro, we went to Rome and Pisa in Italy, which were both amazing, but busy and crowded.

Pisa holds a special place in my heart, though, because while there I met a woman who studied the same thing I am interested in and based on her advice, I made the decision to come to Ohio Northern for college. Next was Provence, France, where I attempted to use my French knowledge from 3 years of class in high school, which I failed at. Lastly was Barcelona, Spain, which was my favorite of the big cities we visited. Overall, the trip was more than a success and I have wanted to go back since the moment I stepped off the airplane after coming home.

Not only did I see some of the most famous parts of Europe, but my grandma and I had the opportunity to bond more than we ever have before, something I am still grateful for. I also realized my dream (and slightly crazy) job- to become a cruise ship director. Although this job is far-fetched and odd it involves my two favorite things: travel and meeting new people. I learned things about myself that I did not know before the trip, which has made me almost addicted to traveling because of what I got to experience.

Despite the opportunities I have had and the experiences I have shared with my family, I know I am not even close to being done with travel. My goal is to be like my grandma and visit all 50 states and seven continents, which she is helping me to achieve. This upcoming summer I am hoping to check off a few more states on a road trip with grandma and I also hope to make my return to Europe soon as well. But until then, I will be taking any chance I get to travel, no matter where it is to.