Wanderlust: What it means to me

Although the term of wanderlust has a clear definition, I think all travelers add something personal to this definition: Their source of wanderlust. Because even though it is a term, wanderlust in the end is a feeling. I believe that some of us are born with this feeling, while others develop it as they grow. …I was born with it.

To me, this feeling is all about discovering new ways of living and behaving through travels. By learning new ways, you can namely better your way of living: Adding foreign values and norms to your life, adds insight into your current way of living. As such, I take bits and pieces of foreign cultures and their ways of living and adapt them to my own life. In doing so, I’m gradually finding the way of living that makes me happy and rounds me as a person. Acquiring insight and understanding, therefore, makes a world of difference to me as a person.

In the end, traveling quite simply fuels me. I believe this is why travelers in general can’t get enough – more wants more. Something in me wants to go – go explore everything I can. Good and bad. You learn from all. I more and more feel that hunger for it, and in periods where it’s not part of my daily life, I am effected emotionally by the lack of it. …There’s a world of adventures out there waiting. If I, therefore, don’t go explore and discover, I feel as if I’m missing out on life. …I want to experience and explore as much as possible in my life. Moreover, I want to share my adventures with friends and strangers with a similar mindset – I want to learn from them. Ultimately, I never want to settle or be limited to one place only. No, as they say: The world is my oyster. So…when I say that I have wanderlust, it means that I have to travel to explore and discover in order to acquire knowledge of and understanding for the world. I will never be content or truly happy if I don’t – this I know for sure! I will continue to travel and settle in different cultures because it simply is in my nature to do so. I soak up as much of this magical world as possible on my adventures so when people ask, ”what’s it like?” I can reply, ”let me tell you…”

xo P!

 

Picture
http://www.world-walk-about.com/northern-asia/the-big-announcement-our-travel-plans/

Relocating Abroad: When it starts to feel like home

I’ve lived in Amsterdam for five months now. All in all, it has been a great experience so far, however, with mixed feelings – nonetheless, a great experience! It’s fair to say that nothing has gone as planned. Nothing… Absolutely nothing. However, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’ve focused on settling first, becoming a local and soon, I can start exploring my new home(y) country as a tourist. I look very much forward to this!

…It started a week after I moved here when I started working at my current job. Then, I suddenly fell in love with this great guy. So while I’ve been busy making a living here: Settling, getting used to the city, people, work and a sudden boyfriend, there hasn’t been time for much else – and to be honest, I haven’t had the time or need for much else either. Too much just gets too much.  As a result, there have been ups and downs. Mainly because of limited leisure time, I haven’t done all the things, I wanted to do – the things I planned to do. It really bugged me the first two/three months. Now, I’m not too worried as I know that it’ll come with time. After all, I’ll stay here for a year or two longer. Furthermore, with almost monthly visits from friends and family, I get to do the tourist experience of Amsterdam at least for a couple of days a month. That’s more than most people living here can say.

Now that spring is slowly turning into summer, I have high hopes for the following months. I want to explore the Netherlands. As such, I wish to travel around a bit. I want to travel to the Hague, Rotterdam, Zaandam, Haarlem, Groningen, Eindhoven and Maastricht. Going too all these destinations might be a bit too ambitious as I only have the weekends. However, I’ll do my best to do as many as possible with the time at my disposal. After all, I’ll go visiting my parents back in Denmark during my holiday.

Anyway… The good thing about the slow settling has made Amsterdam feel homey to me. I can finally say that I’m settled. Next month, I’ll start a Dutch language course so I can finally say more than a few sentences when out. I don’t believe I’ll become fluent as I won’t stay here in the Netherlands that long. Nevertheless, being able to communicate with Dutch people when out and about would be nice. So here’s to Amsterdam Adventure Part 2.

…

Have, or do you also live abroad permanently? How did you settle? And how did you find the process – the experience? I’m very curious.
xo P!

Cultural Diversity Day: Let’s celebrate

Today, it’s officially Cultural Diversity Day. With the increasing intercultural countries around the world, I think it’s very important to celebrate this day. I strongly believe that it’s necessary to celebrate differences in order to enlighten these. Because only by enlightening these, awareness is created in the minds of people. Awareness that, hopefully, will lead to acceptance and respect.

Truth is, we can learn a lot from people from foreign cultures – people with foreign ways of thinking and behaving. We can learn in order to better ourselves. With an open mind and heart, we can learn to live side by side with people foreign to us with curiosity and interest – we can grow. So let’s celebrate our possibilities grow through acquired perspective by celebrating Cultural Diversity Day!

xo P!

Picture
http://www.bluetuliptraining.co.uk/cultural-diversity/

Traveling: Like falling in love

To me, traveling is exactly like falling in love. Let me elaborate on this: I feel this way for many reasons, however, mainly because you go through all the emotions of a romantic relationship: Excitement, fear, happiness, sadness, frustration, relief, curiosity, desire etc. It’s a state of mind out of your control… You just have to roll with it!

The longing to explore and discover takes your breath away time after time. You look forward to every moment, every experience it can lead to with an open heart and an open mind. …You can’t get enough. More wants more. Exactly like true love, you always ache to discover more. In return, the feeling you get when discovering something new is nothing less than exhilarating! Actually…it’s addictive – or…it is to me! Because when you’re in love with a person, you not only long for them all the time, however, you also want to know every thing, every detail about them. To me, it’s the exact same emotions that are touched and feelings I get when I travel. Driven by curiosity and excitement, I just want to explore, discover and acquire insight and understanding – and there’s always more to discover. Moreover, it’s the one thing, you’ll sacrifice more or less everything for – it’s about prioritising, right!? And why not prioritise happiness and a positive mind-set at all means?
…Now that I’ve come to think about it, I believe this is exactly why I don’t understand when people don’t like traveling. Why would you not chase happiness!? Of course, like any love, it’s not one without reservation and uncertainty: However, like any true love should be, you trust it – you have your guards open at first but with an open heart and mind. Furthermore, you accept the good and bad. You even reach a point where you appreciate the bad, turn it into good. You fall in love with the differences you can learn from – the ones you grow from. You turn bad into good and thrive on the differences because it inspires you, it motivates you. It motivates you to work harder in pursuing the connection and a better life – the life of a traveler. As a result, you do all that’s in your power to make it work – even if the foreign culture of choice is out of your comfort zone – you adapt and assimilate.
Even if a travel ends up not being for you, you hold memories for a lifetime to treasure. Even if it isn’t for you and the pain is almost unbearable at first, you’re thankful for every experience along the way that has helped shaped you as a person in the process. Even if it’s not for you, truth namely is that you’re a better person because of it.

…

That’s exactly why traveling is like falling in love to me. What does traveling mean to you?

xo P!

 

Picture
http://danegonzalez.com/wanderlust/

Writing Your Thesis Abroad: My 10 reasons why to write your thesis abroad

After almost five years of study, it was time to write my master’s thesis… Because I didn’t have any classes during the thesis writing period, I decided to move to Berlin for seven months and seek adventure in the pursuit of the infamous black academic cap.

Maybe exactly because I characterise myself as a traveler, I find that you can do anything better when traveling? Nevertheless, I knew I needed this positivity when writing my study so…Berlin it was. It turned out to be the right choice for me for many different reasons. I here present you with my top ten reasons:

1. It’s a unique experience

2. You meet people from all over the world

3. You learn how to communicate with people from foreign cultures

4. You gain perspective on foreign behaviour as well as your own

5. You question what is right behaviour and you come to understand that it depends on many different things – not only cultures, however also people

6. As a result, you gain valuable foreign cultural insight and understanding

7. Having studied intercultural communication for almost five years and writing a thesis within the field, the acquired insight and understanding helped me in the process of writing my study

8. Furthermore, being out and away from everything and anyone, exploring a new city while getting to know it increased my creativity. As a result, I felt that the writing process went more smoothly than it would have under normal circumstances

9. In this sense, the best thing when I was stuck writing was that I could go explore and get renewed energy for the very frustrating process of writing

10. It’s the perfect excuse not to have time for anything or anyone. Let’s face it, writing a thesis is hard work. In the process, you find yourself limited by many things, time being one factor. As a result, living abroad was the perfect excuse not to have time for certain things…

…

Do you want to explore the world as well? What are you waiting for!? Adventure is out there – even under your thesis writing period. There’s always an excuse to go travel! And can you believe it, there are even grants and scholarships that support these adventures throughout a thesis writing process…

xo P!

 

Picture
http://hoptimist.com/products/model/iq/

The Thrill: Dating the nice guy

I think I can easily argue that we’ve all been there, ladies: Dating (or pursuing) the bad guy – for the thrill of it and the goal of ’turning him’. I thought that the thrill of that adventure was the high of the highest…then I dated the nice guy. Yes, the guy that can’t wait to spend the day after a date night in your company…that guy…
I can honestly say that the thrill of dating the nice guy exceeded that of dating the bad guy. I never thought in my wildest dreams that such thrill could come from the simple comfort of knowing that what I see is what I get – of no playing around, no mind games. With scars on my heart, it’s difficult to let a man in but with his honesty, genuine interest and persistence, he makes it easier. Even if I feel like I’m climbing the highest mountain every time he looks as me, at least I know that I’ll make it to the top in one piece – no matter the outcome.

…

He might not exactly be the type to make himself noticeable at social gatherings, he’s most likely even slightly shy. However, his kind heart and hidden confidence make up for it. In comparison, he is the cuter and more exciting choice, and because he is who he is, he makes you break all your rules. The fact that he makes you do so makes him the most exciting guy you’ve come across. Especially, as with him, there are no games: He’s open about his feelings and you can actually trust your own feelings in all of it – he makes you feel comfortable.

My nice guy does many things that make me feel comfortable in the dating-relationship: He’s interested in getting to know me, he gives me genuine compliments, he texts me right after we’ve met up just to make sure I’ve made it back home in one piece, he buys my favourite snacks on date nights, he plans the nearer future for us, he spends hours cooking the right meal for us, introduces me to his friends, holds me all through the night in his sleep and kisses me on my nose because he knows that it makes me happy…he brings a smile to my lips on a daily basis and brings a little extra happiness to my life. And then he laughs at my horrible attempts to pronounce Dutch words. In short, he does all the right, little things that make my heart melt, which ensure me, on a daily basis, that he’s right for me. I know that I can be myself around him even in moments when I feel most flawed and messed up. However, it hasn’t been easy for me to accept his interest for so many reasons – the main ones being that I’m not good at letting guys into my life and I don’t believe I deserve his interest, attention and care. He doesn’t know it yet, but he’s better than I am – in every way: He’s much more personal, open and genuine. Being with him, however, brings that side of me out, more and more – I hope I can bluff my way into his heart before he realizes this. Because of his good nature, it confuses me that he’s still here… For certain, I thought that I’d by now would have chased him away a long time ago – even if I try to behave and not push him away. I’m so glad I haven’t.
I thought about ending it so many times – especially in the beginning. I’ve told him this. The look on his face when I told him made me so guilty and ashamed – hurting him is the last thing I want to do. …I didn’t end it – the thought of not pursuing this and see where it takes me brings so much sadness. Selfishly, I have to see where this is going – even when I believe I’ll end up hurt because he for sure will realize that he’s too good for me. But he’s worth the potential pain – because what he brings to my life cannot be measured in pain anyway.

….

xo P!

 

Picture
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/12/-em-love-actually-em-still-awful/282273/

Amsterdam: Falling in love

 

Moving to a foreign city…

…is sometimes exactly what you need in order to feel homey

xo P!

Travel Tattoos: Inking memories

Today, it has become normal for people to have a tattoo. It’s no longer possible to pin point certain types of people that are likely to have tattoos, as people with tattoos no longer belongs to certain social groups: No all types of people today have tattoos. As a result, new trends within the tattoo industry shows up every day. For the last couple of years, travel tattoos has become a noteworthy trend – one that I, myself, have influenced by.

Everybody who gets a tattoo gets it for a reason. The reasons are as many as there are people with tattoos. However, a tattoo marks a story. This story may be connected to home or travels themselves however, one thing is certain: It mirrors a personal development.
This permanent mark on the body functions as reminder or mark on what a person has been through and what s/he learned as a result – it reveals personality. In this sense, it’s always interesting to hear stories behind tattoos, as people can really surprise you – you learn from them. All experienced made – even if it is made by others – are experiences gained…

Personally, I have four travel tattoos. All of which I treasure. They mark my four abroad relocations and serve as reminders – or marks, really – for an old version of me. Each tattoo reflects a personal growth and development. Be this in relation to following my dreams and passions or letting go, they function as reminders… In this relation, my most treasured tattoo is a swallow on my left lower arm. The symbolism in it is clear… To me, this tattoo marks a change in my life, a choice I made. A choice from which I grew. A choice that made my life a lot easier but also, at times, a lot more difficult.

Do you have any travel tattoos? Or tattoos in general? Why did you get it, if I may ask? And what does it mean to you?

xo P!

 

Picture
Google's search engine

Travelers: The best job candidates

…Yes, you travel in order to enjoy yourself by exploring foreign cultures …with everything that entails. However, in the process, you learn – it’s an education, really. You learn about the foreign culture itself, you learn about yourself as well as about other (foreign) people and ways of living. Moreover, you learn about your own culture – in general, you simply acquire perspective. As a result I argue that traveling builds character, which is why I believe travelers make good job candidates.

With a constant need for adventure in foreign cultures, travelers are obviously good communicators that do not set themselves limitations – on the contrary. As such, we have a lot to offer a work place – even if we have gaps in our resumes filled by traveling or periods of saving for traveling:

1. We live to explore and acquire knowledge
2. We like to try new things
3. We take risks
4. We know how to adapt to change
5. We’re cultural thinkers with a open mind
6. We think opposite in order to deal with foreign situations on out travels
7. We’re willing to learn and welcome construct criticism in order to better ourselves and our skills
8. We’re quick to make decisions
9. We’re good at problem solving
10. We’re dreamers who turn negative experiences into positive ones because, in our experience, we’ve found that there’s always a silver lining

…

As a traveler, which skills would you highlight as important skills learned during travels?

xo P!

Wonderlost Wednesday: Mackinac Island (guest post)

Hello there! Melanie here. My dear blogger friend, Pernnille, asked me to do a guest post on her blog, Wanderlust, because I hail from the United States of America, a place she has yet to travel. Now, you may be expecting something about a big city: Chicago, L.A., New York. However, I would like to discuss a much smaller place because it’s near and dear to my heart.

…

My family was never one for traditions. However, one vacation we took every year was to Mackinaw City for Labor Day Weekend. This is the last weekend of the summer before school starts back up in the United States and it’s also the only time of the year that the Mackinac Bridge (the bridge that connects the upper and lower peninsulas of the state of Michigan) is open to pedestrian traffic. We walked the five-mile-long bridge almost every year. (Some years it was windy, and/or raining, which is not fun to walk through.) This was the highlight of our trip and the main reason we went. However, it wasn’t the only reason.

In the middle of Lake Huron, one of the five Great Lakes of North America, stands Mackinac Island. It’s not a very big island. In fact, one of the many things we do while on the island is ride our bikes around the perimeter, which is about 8 miles(12.8 km). The paved road that takes you around the island winds along the edge of the lake with the rocky cliffs jutting up on the other side. It’s a gorgeous scenic ride. In addition, there’s plenty of places to stop along the way to take breaks, take pictures, go hiking. In fact, along the way you’ll see a few of the beautiful houses of the full-time residents of the island peeking through the trees.

Why do we ride our bicycles and not take a car, you ask? Why because motor vehicles aren’t allowed on the island. Motor vehicles (excluding emergency vehicles, service vehicles, and snowmobiles in winter), were prohibited back in 1898. For that reason, bicycles have become the preferred method of transportation on the island. Of course, walking is allowed and horses are allowed on the island, as well. In fact, taking a horse-drawn carriage tour is another of the attractions offered on the island, or perhaps a horseback-ride through the middle of the island.

Or perhaps you’re a history-buff, someone who enjoys history? Have no fear! The island is rich with history! In fact, on the top of the island stands Fort Mackinac. Built in 1780 by the British during the American Revolutionary War and later used in the War of 1812, it now remains a top tourist attraction. Here you can see what daily life was like, watch reenactments, and listen to music of the time period.

If history and bike-riding aren’t your thing, you’ll have plenty else to do on the island with the countless unique, eclectic shops, a butterfly house with dozens of butterfly species from around the world, putt-putt golf by the beach, visit the Grand Hotel, plenty of open grass areas for catching some (sun)rays, playing Frisbee, or flying a kite.

Remember that peak tourist time is Labor Day Weekend. So be careful not to run any pedestrians over with your bike in the jam-packed Main Street. :p For a better look at the scenery of Mackinac Island, check out my flash fiction series :
Across the Lake (part 1); 
Across the Lake (part 2);
 Lake Huron;
 Fog;
 Day to Night.