Visit the World – Travel Bug Diaries

I’ve got the travel bug.

There’s a world map on my bed with flags of varying colours. I want to travel. A lot. And I seem to want to do everything and go everywhere in the next 18 months to 2 years. Somehow, it’s tough for me to plan long-term. I’m very now-now-yesterday! It’s moments like these that I realise I am super-duper impatient; I’m certainly a millennial. I want to travel and I want to travel, like, now!

On my part, there is a complete lack of patience and a slight distortion of reality, particularly considering the fact the past few years of my life have been spent not earning very much, if at all. Certainly, I’ve racked up a bit mountain of credit card debt that I should probably (most definitely) address as a matter of primary importance.

However, there’s also this other side of me that thinks, well life is to be lived and enjoyed. I’ve spent so many years sacrificing so much pleasure and enjoyment in pursuit of this massive goal – a very worthwhile and incredible goal, that’s for sure – but one that I did not quite succeed in reaching. In fact, I’ve had two very close, but nonetheless failed attempts at this goal – that is the Olympic Games – to be called an ‘Olympian’. Because to arrive means so much more than the kit and the opportunity to represent your country at literally ‘the greatest show on earth’ – for sportspeople and sports fans anyway.

But that’s an aside. The point of that story was I’ve sacrificed a lot – not least financially. My bank account was drained in pursuit of this seemingly aloof dream.

And now I realise I have this incredible yearning to travel. It’s always been there, but I guess it has always been satisfied in some way or another. For the past two years before I ruptured my achilles tendon in May 2016, I was back and forth between Phoenix and the rest of the world training and competing. For the six years preceding my move across the Atlantic, I lived away from home in London – the capital city, buzzing with culture, activity and fun – whilst at the same time also travelling across the globe competing and training.

And now: BOOM! I’m stagnant. Not figuratively – I’m making a lot of moves behind the scenes; I’m grinding, hustling, or whatever the kids are calling it these days. I’m progressing in new ways. But I’m stagnant – literally. Between July 2016 and January 2017 I didn’t leave the country; in fact, I barely left my home city – Manchester, England!

Until Budapest.

And now the millennial within me is screaming – what can I do and how am I going to satisfy this travel bug?

Life, for me anyway, is not about being stuck in Manchester for six months at a stretch.

That’s why my map has so many white flags dotted across it – those are the virgin locations – where I am yet to travel, see, feel and experience in the way I did Budapest.

In this post I was supposed to share with you the other delights of Budapest – the delicious dining. But then I realised I really had nothing much to say about that other than to post a few photos. And then I realised I hadn’t really taken very many photos whilst out there because I was busy being immersed in the moments. It was a dream. In fact, I only took ONE shot of food whilst there…and it was pizza! Ha!

I didn’t take a picture of the goulash (not a fan!), nor did I snap the amazing Hot Stone Steakhouse’s hot plates where Sandy and I ‘cooked’ our own steaks as we ate. LOVED IT! I didn’t take a picture of the oranges and Snickers bar that I picked up from the mini-mart (Spar) across the street from the Synagogue. Because, you know, that seemed a bit uninspired.

But what I did do…I experienced. I lived. I enjoyed.

And you should too.

Where to next?