California. Beaches, palm trees, and beautiful sunsets. Yes! That is where I’m from. I am passionate about writing from a wide variety of things that deal with life, psychology, traveling, and cryptocurrency. I absolutely LOVE traveling. As you may know, I am from the United States and a lot of people ask me if I ever plan to travel around in my own country. The answer is simply, not yet. Perhaps after I finish traveling majority of the world. I am more of a person who tends to think outside the box. Therefore, I would rather see what is out there in the world instead of being stuck in a continent that I already live in. So let's get started!
Did you ever wanted to travel the world or still do, but have doubts? I sure did 2 years ago. I recall me asking my best-friend at the time, if I should travel stateside or go to France instead because I’ve been wanting to travel for SO long and I didn’t really know if I should just do it. He replied in exact words, “Dude, you should go to France if you can!” I’ve watched a lot of videos on YouTube, and Facebook about people traveling the world, living their life to the fullest, and experiencing what it really means to live and that made me wanting to experience what these people were experiencing.
So there you have it. On October 2015, it was my first time traveling and also my first time traveling alone. Daunting isn’t it? I visited France where I was hoping I can put my few years of French class to work and went to Paris where I spent about a 1 ½ week there (supposed to be a week only but I enjoyed it so much I stayed a little longer), and then I went to Germany where I stopped by Munich for a couple of days, and THEN I went to Berlin (I LOVE BERLIN!!!). I can go on and on for days about things I did there, but for the sake of the lengthy post; I will try to shorten it and share pictures instead! After Berlin, it was all coming to an end and was time for me to go home and wrap up my month long trip.
(Paris, France)
(Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany)
Fast forward to February 2017, I then went on a second solo trip. This time around I first went from Los Angeles (LAX) to Iceland for a layover (did not go out into the city because I did not have enough time, but I will most definitely come back to Iceland to visit the city. Do you know how awesome Iceland is??). I first went to visit Bristol & London in the United Kingdom. During the time I went, it was super cold! But this time around I am glad I came prepared with all my winter clothes.
(London, United Kingdom) This one was at the Big Ben.
(London, United Kingdom) If you look straight ahead in this picture below, you can see the tower bridge.
After the U.K, I then went to visit a friend who lives in The Hague in the Netherlands. She was nice enough to let me stay at her place and even showed me around the place she grew up in! We went around in the city, took some very cool pictures, she taught me history of certain places, at night we went out for a delicious dinner and then headed to one of her friend’s house for some drinks. It was an incredible night! The next morning, she dropped me off at the train station. We said our goodbyes and gave a long hug before we both parted our ways. I then left for my final destination in Amsterdam in which I bring you two valuable personal lessons I've learned.
And of course, Amsterdam can't be Amsterdam without the awesome canals they have!
1 . Do Not Let Anyone Or Anything Stop You From Doing What You Want To Do.
One idea, one dream, and taking action; is all it really takes. I made a mistake when I was just 18-years-old and just sat there at night time contemplating about seeing and traveling the world. But I did not do anything at all because none of my friends at the time had money to travel even though most had jobs. In addition, I didn’t want to go alone and was dreading the idea of it. I rest the idea of me experiencing something new and doing some good for myself upon the choice of someone else. BIG MISTAKE! I see them spend money on materialistic things that costs them several hundreds of dollar in which they can use that towards traveling. On the contrary, I can understand for some individuals and I am not going to sit here and be a hypocrite about buying materialistic things. However, if you want something in life hard enough, you’ll achieve it. No excuses! It is WAY to easy to make excuses and much harder to work for something, that is why people do it!
2 . Independence Is A Blessing.
It’s true. Do we just sit here and rely on other people for the rest of our lives to do things for us and/or make decisions for us? We all have to make decisions in life that can either make us or break us. Being independent can be a lonely route, but you can learn how to grow to your fullest potential. Honestly, I would have NEVER thought I would sit at a cafe by the canal in Paris during a beautiful Sunday evening while enjoying a light lunch of baguette, ham, and cheese with a warm cup of coffee by myself. The sensation, feeling, and experience of getting away from everything was one of the best experience that I can never be able to explain nor put into words. You would have to experience it for yourself to truly understand. By traveling alone, I learned how to communicate effectively with other people, spark up conversations with strangers, and learned how to really take care of myself that ranges from finding places to sleep, things to do on my own when I am there, where and what to eat. Sometimes when I need to budget, I would go to the grocery store nearby and learn how to cook a new meal.
All in all, life is to short. Tomorrow is never promised. If there is one thing you take away from this post, I hope it is that you are inspired to travel the world. Learn from my mistake and "just do it!" Shia Labeouf's voice, lol. Happy Sunday!
-Ian
