And This Old World is a New World, And a Bold World...For Me

When I was at school I always found that the beginning of a story was the most difficult part to write. As I grew older, at university I found that I could write the conclusion to an essay much easier than I could write the introduction....

Writing articles in my spare time, I have always found that I can write a perfectly coherent piece, and even though I feel like I know what I want to say in the opening lines, I have never quite mastered it.

(To further prove the point, I re-wrote the beginning section to this several times before eventually something which sounded relatively meaningful).

Today, is not by any means, the beginning of anything, though it is just over a week since I turned 30 years old. My “story” clearly began a while ago (judging from the barrage of jokes I've faced about my age recently that is) and in a couple of weeks, I will be at the start of what I hope will be an extremely memorable and exciting adventure.
My first travelling experience came in 1994, when I went to Copenhagen, and spent two rain-soaked days in the Danish capital. I don’t remember very much about the trip apart from the weather, cobbled streets, and weather choppy enough to convince me not to eat prawns on a pizza ever again…

Thankfully, since then, my experiences have been more positive.
The departure of my aunt and cousin from England to the USA brought an excuse for plenty of trips over the Atlantic, as did the arrival of a new cousin, and a family wedding in 2013.
Once the time came for venturing off with friends, I journeyed to Mallorca and Prague, before time and money allowed solo opportunities to travel to several European destinations such Germany, France and Norway.

I've been fortunate enough to sun myself in the temperate climbs of Barbados and Grenada, but my biggest adventure (to date) came in 2009 when I accepted a job to work as an English teacher in South Korea. Being slightly bolder back then, and less full of fear, my first trip to Asia was largely a success. Despite knowing very little about the country, except for its hosting of sporting events such as the Olympics and the World Cup, I was thoroughly engaged by a new culture and their ways of life. Following on from life in the Korean Republic, I also had the chance to visit Thailand as well as a working holiday in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia as recently as 2012.

With all that in mind, it would be fairly obvious to say that my trip to Korea was perhaps the ‘beginning’ of my interest in the Far East. Positive experiences in Asia gave me an idea about returning to the continent as a tourist rather than an employee.
I hoped this would be the ‘start’ of something special….



"Feeling Good"
Nina Simone (1965)