Travel: to 39 countries and counting

I travel. As much as possible. I wish somebody would give me a job to travel for a year. You do? I’m ready – have the backpack, my camera, writing skills and enough common sense. More than that, I find remote foreign places mesmerizing. When people ask me about my hobbies? I tell them that I play tennis, that I read stacks of books, that I write stories and that I love my garden. But, the truth? My real hobby is to travel. So that I may meet musicians in Budapest, such as these men, who sang just for me.

I never say that I travel for a hobby, because travel is considered to be a holiday. I see the two as different. A holiday is a week in an all-inclusive resort in Mexico. Travel is going to Equator with your “Lonely Planet” guide and a bag filled with emergency supplies. And a backpack. (I do not backpack or live in hostels, I have too much stuff). I arrive with a massive suitcase, but on daily travel adventures, I carry a small backpack with food, water, notebook, city-map and heavy camera equipment. To travel is fantastic/hard/humbling/tiring/soul-enriching. Not a single travel photo tells about the adventure/hardship/heat/getting lost/missing a bus/having altitude sickness or the smells and sounds of strange lands. I crave the adventure of new cultures, cities, languages, foods, dances and the night-sky. I see the world in a different way after a walk in the streets of Cuba. Oh, the cars and colours of Cuba!

A photo shows me in the tiny streets of Serbia, China, Peru, Mozambique – smiling. But, I look at these and remember the reality. I love speaking to random strangers, and I have spent hours just sitting while watching people. I hide behind the long lens of my camera at times. I always buy local music and I pay street musicians. I take thousands of photos and video to capture the sights, sounds and hidden beauty in every new place where I leave my footsteps and where I make new friends, such as this man in India.

List of top 10 places to see: Kruger Park Game Reserve (South Africa), Machu Picchu (Peru), Auschwitz Concentration Camp (Poland), Great Wall of China near Simatai (China), Namib Desert (Namibia), Taj Mahal (India), Temples of Bagan (Burma), Chichen-Itza Pyramid (Mexico), town of Trinidad (Cuba), hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk (Arctic Circle, Canada).

So, what is on your top ten list for travel?