Hello, my name is Nicole and I am a Travel Junkie.
Hi Nicole!
It has been 17 months since I last left the country and I am feeling it. Sure, I visited exotic Portland and yeah, I've been to the East Bay a few times but I miss the excitement that comes with visiting another country: the different smells, the billboards and ads in another language, the street food, the crazy television shows and commercials...all of it adds up to that intangible yet intoxicating something that makes travel so addictive. It's impossible to describe to a non-believer but fellow travelers know exactly what I'm talking about.
For me, what's especially thrilling are those first moments out of the airport. I remember riding the Tube in London from Heathrow and giggling when I heard the "mind the gap" announcement. Riding the bus through Seoul on a freezing cold December night, seeing the city that would be home for the next four years for the first time. The shock of seeing one of the biggest slums in the world in Mumbai on the way from the airport to Victoria Station. Hearing a Boney M remix as the cab whipped around the mountain in Bogotá.
I'm blessed with a good memory and a habit of heightened journalling whilst traveling. I go back and read entries from different trips and it inspires me to keep planning, hoping, and finger crossing. I have my heart absolutely set on a trip back to Colombia this coming summer and I've made an inspiration board and saving chart to help me stay on track. It's time to hit the road again.
