From a magazine page to a dream come true
When there is somebody special, you’re in love or there’s something that you really like doing, you feel the need to tell everyone how it all begun. Don’t you? I am pretty sure many of you are on the same page with me on this.
This is the day when I would like sharing with you how my love for travel grew on me.
I come from a former communist country, from the Eastern part of Europe, called Romania. I really was a child when the country was lead by Nicolae Ceausescu, so I don’t remember many things. What’s left fresher though in my memory is the immediate period after the Revolution of ’89.
There was a wave of foreigners coming to Romania that year and years that followed. Kids from around the world were sending their corresponding postal address so that we, children from Romania write them letters and establish a “friendship by correspondence”.
I became friends with this girl from Switzerland. Her name is Marjorie and I remember all those beautiful letters and birthday presents. I would like to get in touch with her again, even if just for telling her what an important thing she has done for me. She used to send me those beautiful travel magazines with articles about amazing places from around the world. There is one I remember especially because it had a one page commercial: a suitcase, halfway opened and inside you could see an amazing exotic picture: the ocean, white sand beach and a palm tree. That was the moment when I said to myself, YES! I am going to see that world!
I looked at that magazine page hundreds of times, I was telling all of my friends: “look how beautiful this world is”, until I began feeling the smell of the ocean mixed with that white sand.
Of course travelling in communist times and first years after was not an easy thing to do. I could tell you stories about my plans for traveling the world, I could tell you about my enthusiasm and happiness when I first had the occasion of crossing the borders of my country.
Everything else is a bit of history, adventure and falling in love story and maybe some day I will tell you all about.
Like I said before, traveling makes you richer. All the money that I spend to see this beautiful world, represents an investment. From each place I take with me as much as I can and than give it to you, my dear readers.
It feels like there is a small piece in me from every place I’ve seen. That’s a fulfilling thing; I wish it happens to you too!
