I still remember that feeling that overwhelmed me as I boarded my flight to Thailand in November of 2010, after only impulsively booking the flight a week earlier. There was a knot in my stomach: a mixture of excitement, nerves and fear. I was afraid – I was stepping into territory I’d never been before and I was taking a leap of faith.
I was diving into the world, open arms and seeing where it would take me.
That was one of the best decisions I have ever made and when someone asks me about my travel regrets I tell them to only real regret I have is that I didn’t do it sooner.
There are things I learned about the world that I couldn’t have otherwise learned from the comfort of my own home; how stunning the Alhambra is, what it feels like to wake up in Ha Long Bay and all the weird things the Spanish do. But above all of that, I learned so much about myself – what I can cope with, what I can’t, what I will always miss about home and a clearer idea of what I want from my life.
My friend has a tattoo that says “ancora imparo” which is Italian for “I am still learning”. When I first read it I thought it was great – I love to learn, I love to learn facts about the world and fascinating things. But only now do I understand the depth of those words. I am still learning about myself, daily, but nothing makes you learn more about yourself than an adventure.
I love reading travel quotes. Some of them resonate within me, some of them inspire new adventures and others make me long for adventures long gone. Here are a few of my favourite travel quotes:
“Travel like Ghandi, with simple clothes, open eyes and an uncluttered mind.” – Rick Steves
“When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.” – Clifton Fadiman
“I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.” –Mark Twain
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain
“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for” – John A. Shedd
“You lose sight of things… and when you travel, everything balances out.” – Daranna Gidel
“Life is a daring adventure, or nothing.” – Helen Keller
“A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” – John Steinbeck
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” – Mark Twain
“People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home.” – Dagobert D. Runes
“Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends… The mind can never break off from the journey.” – Pat Conroy
“Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.” – Paul Theroux
“Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.” – Theroux
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
-Robert Frost
Do you have any favourite travel quotes you’d like to share?
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
-Robert Frost
I love this quote from Robert Frost!