EMBRACE NEWNESS

Travel strips away the comfort with which we are familiar on a daily basis. It urges us to try something new. Though we might not like the surroundings or the lack of 'things' to do, we deal with it the best we can with minimal complaints.

Solo travel differs from both family travel and discovering a new place with friends. When traveling alone you have your own rhythm and have no one to answer to but yourself. With family and friends, there is a different flow which time takes and others' expectations to take into consideration.

I am grateful my children have started traveling since before they were a year old, the youngest being my son at six months of age when we traveled to Germany. Watching children adapt to their surroundings is a great lesson to most adults who have become settled in their ways with age. They greet each place with eyes wide open and embrace the newness of a distant land.

Certainly there are challenges in each place we visit and the realization that nothing is as it is back home. But we deal with it and move on because the purpose of travel is to get away from everyday life and experience a different way of living.

It is unfortunate that some view travel as merely having to survive it. Certainly I had hoped for decent weather in Ireland but I should know better than to have such an expectation for a land where rain is ever present. But I make do with what I have until the time comes when I return home and reflect on my travels knowing that life is what you make it.