Travel to Blog or Blog to Travel?

The Travel.

If it isn’t obvious by now, then you are probably doing less than skimming this blog.

To rinse and repeat:  I love to travel.  I got this little virus in my mid-twenties and haven’t kicked it yet, nor do I want to.  I haven’t always been a ‘round the world’ traveler, let alone a world traveler.  The idea to travel around the world by myself crept up on me in my thirties about 7 months before I chucked it all and left.  Before that, I just tried to travel when I could and go as far away as I could.  Sometimes I’d stay in a swanky resort in Mexico and I hadn’t stayed in a hostel really for about 10 years since my first backpacking trip.  Everyone travels differently and no one way is right or wrong.  Even I travel differently all the time…sometimes staying in a hostel or even in a stranger’s home and other times work has me in some pretty swank resorts or I treat myself to some hip, boutique hotel as I often did before my ‘world tour.’

Bottom line: I do NOT travel for you, sorry.  And I do not travel to make you jealous or envious.

I travel for me.  I travel to see the world before I die (life is short and unfortunately, I’m not immortal).  I travel to meet different people from different cultures.  I travel to learn.  I travel to change – myself and my own opinions and stereotypes.

The Blog.

When I started this blog in mid-2006, there seemed to be only a few of us out there.  Like many, I just wanted an easy way to keep in touch with friends and family while I was out in the world; to write my friends and regale them with some funny and interesting tales and showcase my photography.  And maybe inspire others to go travel or go after their dreams because maybe by seeing me do it, it would seem more doable, more attainable.  Fast forward four years and there is a glut of travel blogs jamming up the cyber waves and clogging in boxes and RSS feeds of those who voraciously read about others’ travels.   Some are amazingly well-written and the authors could be doing much more with their prose. Others are choppy or funny or just barely adequate.  Mine falls in there somewhere – that’s for you to judge not me.  Luckily for me, I was already a professional writer/producer in the broadcast television and media world, so I felt I had a little something extra in my back pocket as far as experience goes.  Lately there’s been a bit of a backlash because of all the travel blogs out there – good ones and bad ones; ones that stick around for years and others that are there during someone’s jaunt and then are basically abandoned; ones that have become big business and sometimes overshadow others of perhaps better quality (‘quality’ being subjective of course).  But like it or not, blogs are a real force now and are truly influencing not just other media, but our world and how we learn, debate, and relate to it all.

I personally rarely read other blogs.  I try to when I can, in order to keep up with my peers and friends, but frankly I am not even quite sure how others have the time to read so many posts everyday.   Of course I am thankful that people somehow have the time to read mine!  My readership has grown — many of my friends are still here (thank you!) reading along and many new friends have come along for the ride (thank you!).  I can honestly say, that I’ve always received good feedback and thankfully make people laugh and allow them to live vicariously through my travels or at least be inspired and learn a little about the logistics of travel and maybe about a time, place, or culture as I observed it.

Just as I did in the beginning, I blog to entertain. And I blog to share some of what I was able to see and learn from others so perhaps my readers can learn more and maybe have their curiosity piqued enough to at least look into something on their own or at best travel there themselves.

In the spirit of full transparency, like my cool friend Kirsty does so well over at Nerdy Nomad, this blog has also become a side job for me. I now make several hundred dollars a month (and sometimes more) mostly from advertising on my blog.  And I still don’t even really know much about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or if my writing style incorporates it or not.   Nor, do I plan to change my writing style to do so.  I’m still a writer and a journalist first, not a blogger.  I also indirectly make some other funds simply because this blog exists.   People have found me and my work on the internet and hired me through this progressive and non-traditional means.  Many folks looking for content producers of different forms (writing, photography, marketing, social media) have found me because of this blog and in turn hired me.   It is certainly not enough to travel or live on so I supplement it with my television producing gigs and other travel writing/publishing, photography work, and public relations stints.  But one thing remains the same: how I write. I have not compromised my style or changed the way I write in order to make money. I write about what I want, when I want, and frankly sometimes don’t feel like writing at all.  I approve all adverts and they are blatantly just that. I never slip any businesses, products, or services into my posts that I don’t personally recommend.   And I have still stayed true to my original reason for starting all of this – to entertain, inform, and inspire you (and even sometimes myself).

This is probably not the first image that came to your mind when seeing this post’s title. But there it is — a blazing sunset over the Hudson River taken from the New Jersey side looking east toward New York.  Yes, just north of the city, is a gorgeous green state that goes for hundreds of miles all the way up to the border with Canada.

What’s special about this photo is that I snapped it when I was in high school.  That’s right, this was before digital, before Photoshop, and before sex (well, for me).   Got your attention?   ‘My first SLR’, my high school sweetheart and I were wandering around the New Jersey coast and lo and behold, the sky was really that ‘on fire’.  But what I always liked the most about this shot was the little tug boat and its tiny lights.

Red Dusk

New York 1990

So…I just unpacked and got my own place again after 4 years of living out of a bag and traveling around the world.

In some ways I am the typical American Gen-Xer.  I went to college. I got a degree in broadcast Journalism.  I went on to build my career in television.  I was a director, a promotions producer/editor and a specials producer.   My persistence led me from intern at Late Night with David Letterman to NBC to FOX to ABC.

I moved to Chicago in my mid-20s all excited and ready to take on the world Mary Tyler Moore-style,  I bought my first condo and found myself in a committed relationship.   I was going to all the cool media parties and events.   Life was on a roll.

Also in my early 20s…I came down with something.   An illness.  I caught the travel bug.  A college friend invited me to the EU to backpack with her for 3 weeks…and I was like ‘yeah, right.’

At this time, the internet was a wee lass, but I dialed up the ol’ AOL online and looked at prices for tickets (not even sure what Travel search site I used back then?) and realized…wait, I could do this. I do have the means to go.  I had been working and saving for a few years.  WHY NOT?

I went and fell in love…with Paris, the history, the old buildings, the character…yes, the joie de vivre (how fun is it to just so subtly touch that final ‘re’ in vivre? Okay, maybe it’s just me).

When I returned, I vowed to try and go somewhere ‘far’ every year when I had my typical US vacation of 2 weeks or so. And I did it…each year…going away to places like: Germany, Italy, Greece, Croatia, Ireland, and Japan.

I devoured travelogues and books.   I had a small, far-off dream of living abroad someday. Before there were all these travel websites and blogs, I started subscribing to email newsletters like “Transitions Abroad”, “Student Traveler” and even received some email newsletter from a company giving tips on overseas real estate investing. I hadn’t even purchased property in the US yet!

Sometime in my early 30s, some friends of mine, who were in a serious relationship, told me they were going to work for a few more years, save up their cash and then quit their jobs to travel around the world.  I think I got goose bumps. Wow.  I was envious of such a plan.  They were cool.  They were going to be able to do that.  They were so lucky.  They had each other and I wished I could do that with my boyfriend.  But it never even occurred to me…that I could do it.  The irony of the matter is: they never did it…but I did.

In early 2005, my 11-yr old cat became ill and a year of tough treatment and care took its toll on me and him.  The day came when I knew his quality of life was simply not what it should be and I had to make the tough decision to have him euthanized.   Also during that same year, my boyfriend and I were growing apart and I knew it was time to call it quits. I was also growing bored with my job. Don’t get me wrong.  I had a great job as a TV producer at ABC7, but nearly 10 years of doing the same thing was enough for me.  I was in love with the Globetrekker series and wished to work on that show or for a Travel Channel show.  At least that would still be “smart” and “secure” – to find a ‘job’ with travel.  That was the responsible thing to do.  I had been reading more travel memoirs and read one that year called One Year Off about a family who quit their jobs, sold their house and things and traveled around the world with their two kids for one year. I was floored. How cool was that?

That, coupled with the fact that I was more ‘detached’ than I’d been in long time…came together like a slow rising tide. Enough of envying these ‘others’– I could DO IT!

As soon as it hit me… the wheels started turning.  I could sell my condo (this was before the market crash) and have the security blanket I needed for such a trip.

Then I just sped forward with the plan:

• I sold my condo in April 2006 for double what I paid for it 7 years earlier.
• My ex-boyfriend moved out by May 1^st.
• I started this very blog in July 2006.
• I quit my job by August 1^st.
• I bought a backpack at REI.
• I got vaccinations.
• I bought the first 2-3 months worth of airline tickets at STA Travel.
• I found a tenant to live in my current condo.
• I sold my car through Craigslist.

And on Oct 5^th 2006, I flew out of Chicago O’Hare International to San Jose, Costa Rica and proceeded to travel around the world by myself for 15 months until January 2008 when I returned from London to New York City.  And then I left again in September 2008 for Europe and the Middle East and finally returned to the US in the Spring of 2009.

For the details of the rest of that story…Click on the archives of this blog and start in the summer of 2006.

Here is a video I put together that helps me look back and remember all the amazing times from my recent travels and gives you a glimpse of how the world looks through my lens. Hopefully if you are thinking about doing something like this or at least taking more than just a week vacation, this will inspire and move you too.

(For best results: Turn your speakers up! And make it full screen.)

If you don’t see the video, please click here:

My World

What did you think?  Did it move you?  Leave a comment here.

Last week, the new gourmet Italian mega-store known as Eataly opened in Manhattan.   At nearly 45,000 square feet, the gluttonous foodie-heaven is like a Macy’s of Italian culinary goodness.

“This isn’t a giant food court,” said co-owner Mario Batali to the Wall Street Journal. “This isn’t a selection of restaurants under one roof. This is a retail store where we peddle the greatest of Italian gastronomy to people who want to eat it and know how to appreciate it. You ask any Italian and all of the smart Americans where the best meal they ever had in the last ten years was, and it was never in someone’s restaurant. It was always in the house. And with these products, and this ideology, we’re hoping that’s what we’re going to bring to New Yorkers.”

When I was in Italy last year I visited the original Eataly just outside of the city center from Torino.  This Whole Foods meets an Italian food-mecca was far more unique in Italy than it will be in the foodie-centric and upper-class hipster haven of Manhattan.  Before now, Italy didn’t have a Trader Joes or Whole Foods type market.

At Eataly, I drooled over the enormous selection of cheeses, meats, breads, pastas, fish, chocolate, and olive oils. Stark white shelves heaved with perfectly aligned jars of oily, salty anchovies, a plethora of pestos, tasty tapenades, freshly made pastas, and so much more. Luckily there are cafes sprinkled throughout the store where you can sit down and chow on some of the delights right before your eyes.  And for dessert, of course, there is a gelato stand from which part of the proceeds go to charity.

Here are some photos from my tour of Eataly in Torino. If you are in New York, head down to the Flatiron District. Or better yet, hope a flight to Milan and train in to Turin to check out the original.

For more food and travel stories, check out WanderFood Wednesday.