Opening Statement

Hello honored guest, 

I am proud to begin the journey of creating my own travel blog to share my experience in roaming the world to find all its wonders. I had been playing with the idea of starting a project like this for several years; however, it isn't until now that I feel I have accumulated enough personal experience to begin broadcasting my travels and having the words be interesting and engaging. I have three goals with this blog and they are

• Put my passion for travel in documented form and to share it with my friends and strangers of the world.
• Persuade people that traveling is one of the most liberating and wonderful things a human can do.
• Help people understand the places I am traveling to and entice them into learning more on their own. 

With these in mind I think it might be best to describe my personal history with traveling. The story of my travels starts in the summer of my fourth year in elementary or grade school when my mother and father took me to Europe for the first time. This trip became a very important point in my life as it was the trip that made me fall helplessly in love with exploring the world. I will forever curse and love my father for his gifted way of teaching me the history of Western Europe. He showed me that when you are knowledgeable about the place you are visiting it becomes more enjoyable by an uncalculating amount. While that was one lesson I took from this trip the single greatest memory I have of this trip was in Pisa, Italy. 

We had arrived in Pisa during the day and after being introduced to family I had never even heard of before I was welcomed into the family with what seemed to be an endless meal of three different types of pasta and all the cheese I could throw on it, Parmesan being my personal favorite. After the meal my family gathered round the TV to watch the World Cup. Did I forget to mention that I was in Europe when the World Cup was being hosted in France? The energy was addictive and quickly became fuel that helped launch me into the nearest bar or pub with a TV. But while the warm welcome and spirited sports were an excellent start Pisa had yet to share with me her most wonderful gift. 

The city at night is a remarkable thing. During these times there are those who love to meander along the ancient coble roads of Europe and they seem to enjoy their pace very much. In time I might also enjoy that, but for now I prefer the bicycle as my way to navigate. While being given a tour of Pisa at night on bike from a distant cousin I was able to see all her sights and sounds illuminated by floodlights. The tower seemed to be exploding from the ground and the different churches also held their charm with the moonlight bathing over there hundreds year old roofs. It was one of the first times I have ever found myself taken back by Humanity's ability to create beauty. 

The night ended with what any 11 year old would say is the perfect ending. Frozen gelato with a couple hundred university students celebrating the end to another set of finals next to a lazy flowing river called The Arno River. It was magical in every sense of the word. The people, the sights, smells, and spectacular taste everything was burned into my brain and continues to this day to be one of my most cherished memories from my childhood.  

For now I will leave you with that story and promise to continue my records of past travels soon. It is getting late and I hope to be well rested in the morning. Until I return I wish everyone good health and happy travels.