A Life of Travel

I have experienced wild and crazy adventures on the road. When I look back I know for sure that God is always watching over me. Travel continues to bring me great joy. I have traveled with friends, family and a couple of times on a tour (I don’t like tours) but for the most part I have traveled solo. Check out the chart below to see where travel has taken me.

 THE COUNTRIES 

I have traveled to all of the countries below, however, the countries in blue are the only ones linked to a blog post. At some point I plan for each country to be spattered with blue….maybe when I slow down.

Side note: Below Sri Lanka is listed in the middle east. I know it is in south Asia, but until I can get the hang of this updated crappy version of WordPress, it is in the Middle East! Hahaha!

Europe
France	Germany	Italy	Czech Rep.
Poland	England	Luxemburg	Sweden
Switzerland	Netherlands	Russia	Slovenia
Denmark	Norway	Lichtenstein	Ireland
Finland	Portugal	Hungary	Greece
Bulgaria	Austria	Belgium	Montenegro
Croatia	Bosnia-Herceg.	Andorra	Vatican City
Spain	Romania
Central and South America
Belize	Mexico              Mexico Again	Guatemala	Chile Part I          Part II
Panama	Costa Rica	Argentina	Brazil
Uruguay	Peru	Ecuador/Galapagos
Asia
Japan	China	Singapore	Korea
India	Thailand PartI  Part II	Vietnam Part I    Part II	Cambodia
Malaysia	Indonesia	Laos	Taiwan
Middle East
Jordan	Turkey	United Arab Emirates	Sri Lanka
Africa
South Africa	Egypt	Ethiopia	Ghana
Morocco
Carribbean		North America
Puerto Rico	Jamaica	Canada	United States
Oceania
Australia		New Zealand

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• Wildlife Tourism: Yes or No
• Life on the Road: What Is It Really Like?
• The Budget: Your Questions Answered
• On Leaving Italy 

Outside the Boundaries travel adventures include the time I:

• Spent New Year’s Eve with my safari’s tour guide and his family in South Africa and haven’t partied like that since.
• Spent Thanksgiving in Turkey of all places!
• Got really sick in Iguazu Falls, Argentina ended up in surgery back home in Germany.
• Fed kangaroos and held a koala in Australia.
• Spent one week each in India, Peru, Argentina and Brazil for my 50^th
• Napped on the beach with the seals in Galapagos Islands; and spent my birthday meditating and in prayer at Macchu Picchu.
• Was hugged by an Orangutan in Singapore; rode an elephant in Thailand, a camel in Egypt, a donkey in Jordan and held a lion cub in my lap in South Africa. See my views on animal tourism here.
• Marveled at the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia.
• Experienced earthquakes in Japan and Chile;
• Rode a donkey in Petra, Jordan while talking to a man passing me on a camel. Can we all say “outside the boundaries” for that one?
• Went dog sledding above the Arctic Circle and met the real Santa Clause (yes Santa is real)
• Taught women to make self-sustaining crafts in Ghana, West Africa and gave motivational speeches to school children in surrounding villages.
• Herded sheep in New Zealand.
• Fasted on fruits for 21 days in Bulgaria;
• Visited Bosnia, Croatia and Montenegro in a three-day time span.
• Fed the hungry and made mattresses for children in poverty in Mexico

Those are just a few of the adventures I’ve experienced through travel. Some adventures are not to be published! Travel broadens your horizons, increases your understanding of different cultures and changes your world view. Travel is the cure-all for me. I wish you all safe and happy travels. But most of all I wish you find the one glorious trip, event or activity that leaves you speechless, and when you regain your voice, all you can say is “wow”. The first time I had that wow moment was in Florence, Italy about 25 years ago before Google and the internet were popular. I was following my travel book. I turned left off the train as directed, then right and then left, reading all the time. When I looked up I was speechless. The most beautiful ancient city street (minus tourist I might add) was right in front of me. I remember it like it was yesterday. When I finally found words, all I could say was “wow”.  Travel is supposed to give you the wow effect. That experience is out there for you; when you find it please tell me about it.

“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.” –  Maya Angelou