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the inspiration behind my travels

hey hey – an internet [specifically… travel blogging] meme from easyJet — #inspiretravel (big thanks to Leave Your Daily Hell for the tag)

the point so far as i can see of this meme is to share the who, what, where & when of the most inspirational moments of my travels. so fasten your seat belts, insert the metal tab into the buckle, and let’s go go go —>

Coach - inside an airplane

airplanes have always inspired me. yes, even being crammed back in coach/economy class. com’on! you’re sitting in a metal tube flying through the clouds—how is that *not* inspiring?

who inspired me to travel?

a few things to say here, really.

  1. my dad. besides his amazing travel stories from his own twenty-something travels, he’s also an airline man. i grew up waiting in airports for the next standby connection. my love of airports and flying knows no bounds!
  2. my sister. she put life on hold and traveled around europe once, too. she’s also part-of-the-reason why this blog is called travels of adam.
  3. oh and all **these** people

what inspired me to travel?

besides all the travels with my family, it was definitely my semesters abroad that showed me i could actually do this travel thing alone. sure, i’d taken occasional flights alone as a kid (to meet my grandma, for example), but it was studying abroad that really inspired me.

in 2006 i spent a semester at sydney university. lots of my friends from boston went away for the same semester, but i was the only one who went to sydney. and i loved it! it took some getting used to, but it was pretty exciting. the first day of the semester, we went on a boat cruise in the harbor and i knew absolutely no one. i was forced to be social and to introduce myself, and from then on i pretty much have been more and more outgoing, social and easy-going. every new day i’m abroad, it’s just more and more.

hostel party in krakow

making new friends at a fun hostel in krakow

my second semester abroad was in london. i loved the city but by this point i was already pretty used to making a life out of nothing in a new place. so to go one step further i decided to go out alone during our one week holiday semester break. when all my friends booked flights to amsterdam, i opted to go somewhere completely on my own—krakow, poland. there, i stayed in a hostel where i ended up making lots of fleeting friends. but my first big-time solo trip was a huge success!

where did inspiration strike?

growing up in an airline family, we understandably had quite the appetite for travel: the occasional road trip, flights around the country to visit various family members and the odd spur-of-the-moment day trip to a random US city. i remember going to mexico city for the day from dallas once as a kid (i was just in 3rd grade). i loved the idea that i could fly to this completely foreign place so easily and so quickly. mind-boggling! even still today!

hipsters in iceland

one weekend in beautiful Iceland was all i needed to push me over the edge :)

when did i decide to take travel seriously??

without question—iceland. here’s an excerpt from “how iceland changed my life“:

It wasn’t until I met people my same age from all over the world (doing very different things than what I was doing) that I was inspired to take some action. It just seemed unfair to think they had all these amazing stories to tell, and here I was, beginning to feel more and more complacent in my generally comfortable life.

seriously! one weekend in iceland was all i needed to make me realize (again?) how important travel was to me. and so after that trip, i took every action i could to make travel a bigger part of my life. it took me about 9 months until i’d get outside the country again, but i’ve barely been back since.

okay….so that’s it. the who/what/where/when/why of my inspiration for traveling. for the how you’ll just have to subscribe for updates!

if you want to contribute your own 5w answers to travel inspiration, just shout below and i’ll tag & link to you here :)

  1. Interesting meme – my “WWWW” travel inspiration story is a bit more convoluted, but do tag me and I’ll give it a try!

  2. Ryan at Travel and Graphs says:

    First time on this site, and I enjoyed this post a bunch! It is interesting to see why other travelers set out on their journeys.

    • Adam says:

      Thanks Ryan! Hope you’ll stick around…

      I’ve been “traveling” and/or living abroad for over two years now. Never really expected my life to go in this direction but still loving it!

  3. cheryl says:

    OK…. totally link to me!! ;)

    Good post Adam. I wish I was from a airline family. :)

  4. Izy Berry says:

    awesome post, link to me :-) I’d love to answer my own thoughts on this.

    I’m so jealous you grew up waiting on standby in airports, that’s always been my dream – to take a standby flight to somewhere random… ahhh. travel. the best addiction.

    • Adam says:

      yeah – standby can be a lot of fun when you’re not using it to just get home or something. then it’s super stressful!

      and just tagged you! share the post with me here when you do it :)

  5. My Travel Inspirations And How I Became A Travel Junkie. | cherylhoward.com says:

    […] to Adam from Travels of Adam for the tag in Easy Jet’s #InspireTravel initiative. If you’d like to be tagged, leave […]

  6. And the winner of the easyJet Holidays #InspireTravel competition is…._Go Time Travel Blog | Go Time Travel Blog says:

    […] Travels of Adam – Travelling with his family was a great starting point for Adam, and then semesters abroad in Sydney and London pushed him ever further. […]

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