Where to Travel Next?

Whenever people see me or meet me for the first time and get to know my story, they all eventually ask me one question: Do you think you’ll stick around for a while?

I’ve long been the elusive Bay Ridge girl who, if you were extra lucky, you might run into while grabbing some Peppino’s or running to the shops to grab some groceries. Home, as I’ve talked about before, is a strange and abstract concept that is always taking on new meanings and feelings, but the love that I feel here is unmatched to anywhere else I’ve felt in the world.

When my friends, family, and neighbors here tell me they missed me or that it’s good to have me home, I believe them. The words I miss you aren’t words they just throw around like we’re having a catch. Here, I made a difference, and my absence was felt with every day I was gone.

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But like I’ve also talked about, that doesn’t mean I am home for good. Yes, I am home to work on myself, work on my writing, and work on positioning myself to really start tackling my bigger goals and ambitions (like that book I’ve been talking about), but eventually I do want to travel again when the time is right and when I am in the right place both emotionally and professionally. Much of my upcoming travel plans will also depend on how much I am able to save throughout the next year, which doesn’t look like much when you factor in rent costs and the ongoing temptations that come with life in New York.

I don’t know whether it will be long-term backpacking for months on end like my 10-month stint around Asia or whether it will be shorter trips taken in spurts, like my three months after getting the boot from Australia.  In the latter, both money and my emotional state played a role in why I came home. I couldn’t afford it, and I just realized that though I love to travel, I just wasn’t happy. (This is something I plan to write about in the near future, so keep an eye out for my next piece.)

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For my next trip, I want to be happy and healthy and ready, and I want to be fully present, fully in the moment, and fully enjoying every second without anything or anyone (including myself) weighing down on me. Whether I will be solo or not I can’t yet say. Maybe a friend will get tired of her (or his) desk job and quit to come travel the world with me, or maybe I’ll meet truly meet my match and meet someone who loves to travel just as much as I do. I don’t mind traveling alone, but having a constant companion through every road bump is always nice.

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If all pans out all right, I’d like to take off September of next year, just after my best friend’s wedding, when I head over to England (hopefully) to watch my brother play in his very last set of World Cup games. (His first set of games I was in university, and his second set I was traveling through Southeast Asia and cheering for him with my friends and other travel friends we met who jumped on the USA bandwagon).

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But before then, I have to choose where I am going to spend my 28th birthday, seeing as I celebrate each year of my 20s with a new country. So far I’ve done two in Europe (Italy and Spain), two in North America (the States and Mexico), two in Asia (Korea and Indonesia), two in Australia/New Zealand. I’ve got my eyes on Central and South America for my 28th

And of all the countries out there, and all the places I can travel to, these are my top choices (which are conveniently all over the map) of the places I want to visit in the very near future.

  • Alaska
  • Iceland
  • Croatia
  • Indonesia (I’ve been before but will never be done)
  • Philippines
  • Argentina
  • Bolivia
  • Chile
  • Guatemala
  • Galapagos Islands
  • Peru
  • Panama

Which of these places I will spend my birthday in, I’m not quite sure yet. Unfortunately now because I actually work and have only 10 days of holiday – 10 days! – I have to be smart with where I go. If my birthday wasn’t in March, I’d head to Alaska or Iceland, but hell no. Not in winter. For the most part, I hate winter except if I am snowboarding, or its late at night and the snow has just fallen and it’s super quite and super cold outside. (We’ll get to my ‘How Allie is coping with winter’ post soon.)

Throughout the coming months, I’ll highlight a few of my choices and give you the insider’s guide on how I go about picking my places of obsession. (Hint: It really all starts from a photo.)

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