My Love for Travel

As a child, my family and I never travelled abroad—it was too expensive for a family of six. Well, I guess we did once... When we drove from Edmonton to Vancouver to board a cruise ship that took us to Alaska, which was the first and only big trip we ever did as a family. It was quite magnificent and memorable. We normally spent most of our family vacations camping amongst the forest in Alberta and that truly is the root to why I am so fond of The Rocky Mountains.

However, at that moment in time, I wasn’t aware that my hunger for bigger adventures even existed inside of me until I was scouted for Team Canada’s Women’s Sitting Volleyball Team at the age of 16. Even before I was graduated from High School, I was competing internationally representing my country across the globe. I competed in World Championships and the PanAmerican Games in countries only one could dream of visiting; like Brazil, England, and throughout the United States. And as cheesy as this is to say: that is when I caught the travel bug.

You could say that travel was my first love. I’ve spent more time gazing out of plane windows and squeezing clothing into a backpack than I have with any partner I’ve ever dated (until maybe my current partner). You know how they say the feelings from your first love never fade? Well, I believe it to be true because even when I’m not travelling, I’m thinking about travelling.

Thus far, I have travelled to 31 countries! My goal was to visit 30 countries before I turned 30 and I proudly achieved that a month before my 29th birthday. So, now that goal has evolved to hit 40 before 40!

These are the countries I’ve travelled so far (listed in alphabetical order):

Austria, Belgium, Belize, Bosnia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, England, El Salvador, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Portugal, Spain, Thailand, United States of America, and Vatican City.

You might be wondering how I’ve been fortunate to travel to so many diverse places, but I promise I have a system to the madness. When I was in university, I was working 20 hours a week as a waitress and in the summer months I would juggle 2-3 jobs to save as much money as possible in a short amount of time. Some people prioritized buying property in their early twenties; whereas, I prioritized spending money on plane tickets and hostel bunk beds. I truly live for the quote “travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer,” and as I’m entering my 30s, I’m still prioritizing travel and probably will until the day I die.

I was strategic in how I planned my trips, designing a way to get the best bang for my saved buck. For example, the first solo backpacking adventure I ever went on was 3 months long and included 14 countries. Seeing that many countries was achievable because I got an opportunity to study with my university in France for a month in the summer, and I decided to tack on a month before and after my studies to travel other parts of Europe. Countries in Europe are smaller and easier to travel between by bus, train, or budget airlines. So, if you’re craving to see as many places as possible in a short amount of time, I highly recommend Europe!

Details on my European Travel itinerary can be found here.

Another trip I took that allowed me to check many bucket list places off was backpacking through Central America. And before you ask “was it safe?” Yes, I felt extremely safe the whole time, but you just have to be smart—as you should when travelling anywhere abroad. I decided to go with two of my best friends when we stubbled upon cheap one-way tickets to Belize and couldn’t resist the temptation. This was the first trip I had taken without a concrete plan. We made decisions based on recommendations we were gathering from fellow travellers and locals we met on the road. And this road ended up leading us south through some of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen! Our one-way ticket soon transformed into a 5 passport stamp collection and six weeks of memories, travelling by bus or boat through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. I fell so deeply in love with this corner of the world, that I went back 2 months after returning home to Canada.

Details on our Central America itinerary can be found here.