Little Things I Love about Traveling
Traveling brings out the “type A” in me. For some reason my dream-come-true is a neat little suitcase that has all of my clothes bundled up in organized categories when I open it. The weird part is that when I get home from a trip I always forget about my dirty clothes in the bag for a few days (so they can get that much stinkier) and then totally dread unpacking them when I realize I’m out of underwear and socks.
Whenever I get ready for a trip, I always think of this conversation I had about packing with my friend, Meg, a few years ago. She hates packing (trust me, I provided therapy when she stuffed everything she owned into a suitcase for study abroad,) but she said she always unpacks right away. That got me wondering… what kind of people are packers and what kind of people are unpackers? Thoughts? Are you a packer or an unpacker? Both? Neither?
Right now Darin and I are planning a trip to New York City over spring break as well as our big post-graduation road trip out west. For the past few weeks, I have been focusing all my energy on the road trip and almost forgot about our mini-vacation in March. Now I’m looking forward to it, even though I still can’t stop daydreaming about a tent pitched in front of a pink and orange Grand Canyon sunset.
Things That Excite Me About Traveling:
Marking places to go on my giant map of the US in our living room.- Scouring the Lonely Planet website for tips on places to go.
- Buying a new folder and labeling it “Travel Folder”
- Making a list of things to pack
- Deciding which shoes to bring
- Packing
- Arriving where I’m staying and laying all my clothes out in little piles
- Exploring new restaurants, bars, and shops
- Trying new foods
- Mastering public transportation in a new city
- Reading a map correctly and actually getting us where we want to go (happens approx. 50% of the time)
- Spending my days outside
- Putting my feet up at night after a full day of exploring and rehashing everything that happened
- Looking at the photos other people take of our adventures (I usually forget to take them myself.)
What little things excite you about traveling?
Preview for Tuesday: Wine down Sunday. Another craft night with the ladies.
Tea & Beer 
I always pack way too much than I need and never learned to pack light, bah! Great list, although I use Trip Advisor more often than Lonely Planet. Little things that excite me about travelling: getting lost in a new city (and found again), different currency and languages (sometimes), and sorting out photos afterwards! 😀
The photos after are my favorite part well next to the actually adventure part of the trip. I just finished making a photo book of all the fun adventures i had studying in Ireland last year. It was so hard going from like 1,500 photos to just 400 but i did it.
Trip Advisor! I’m going there for more travel inspiration. Thanks Annie Bananie!
I know you probably don’t have the time for it, but you should try reading that book, “The Good Girl’s Guide to Getting Lost”, that I had given to Sam to read. I think you’ll love it and it will make you even more excited about your future travel.
Sounds good. I’ll pester sam about it!
travel blog: yes….exactly!
Getting away from the familiar is always a great refresher. Add the whole “seeing new parts of the world” thing and you’ve got yourself a fantastic endeavor. I like coming back after traveling and integrating my new experiences into my day-to-day, normal life. For example, I went to England with my family when I was around 9 or 10. My aunt lived in London and because of her connections we got to go into a private cage and play with baby gorillas. It was one of the best experiences of my life and it sparked a passion within me.
I have travel to thank for that!
I also agree with Annie Bananie when she said the potential to experience new languages is exciting about travel. The cultural transitions are wildly eye-opening.