The Dream

I’ve dreamt of traveling since I was a child. The destination of my adventure changed over time from England to Japan to Italy to South Korea, but the need to experience a different city and culture remained the same. The grass on the other side always called to me. Not because it was greener, but because it was unknown.

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The Reality

Unfortunately, traveling was unfeasible for most of my life. In fact, I never even flew in a plane until 2017. But in 2018, my dream finally came true: I visited South Korea. Everything was new—and sometimes scary—but always breathtaking. The palaces were so bright and colorful. The mountains had such a distinct shape, my eyes could hardly look away from them. There was so much to do, so much to see, that it was impossible to be bored for even a moment. I loved the trip so much, I visited again just 9 months later! I’d been bit by the travel bug.

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The Roads Not Yet Traveled

As soon as I came back from that second trip to Korea, I immediately began fantasizing about the next. “Should I go back to South Korea? Is going there three times in three years a bit excessive? Do I care even if it is? But there are so many other places in the world that I need to visit—Ireland seems beautiful and ancient, but if I go to Greece I can pretend I’m Lena from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants…then again, Japan is a geek’s dream vacation…”

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Maybe, if I live off of ramen for a year, I could visit two countries?

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The Desperate Traveler

But life didn’t give me a chance to find out how quickly I could get sick of dehydrated noodles and powder packets. The rot of the pandemic destroyed the lives we took for granted, its tendrils reaching out to mar every aspect of our lives.

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Traveling has been put on pause for over a year now. All the dreams of new adventures remain trapped in the fantasy world, forbidden to step into reality. And at this point, I’m desperate. I miss flying, seeing new sights, trying new things. So I decided to create this blog so I can virtually visit all the places that have been closed off to me.

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Do you want to come, too?