a dangerous business....

Bilbo Baggins once said, "It's a dangerous business going out of your door; you step into the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to."

I remember when I was 12 and my family left Northern California. I had been all over California, its coasts, mountains and valleys. California was my world, and a beautiful one. Then, as we drove across the border into Nevada, I saw the map in my head with all of its borders and dividing lines melting until lines didn't exist. Without lines my world was a much bigger place.

In my teenage years I traveled all over the US by car, by bus, by train, by plane, anything that could get me somewhere new. I've seen 45 of the 50 states, and most of those I've traveled fairly extensively, and often a few times over. At 20 I went on a 3000 mile road trip as a first date, and got my license the day before the trip. We drove 19 hours without stopping (except for petrol)straight from Texas to Virginia's coast, where I got out of the car and jumped into the ocean just for the joy of it.

By 21 I had swum in the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. I had seen many wonders in the country of my birth, but I began to hunger for more. My best friend is English and we have always talked about so many ideas. One day we were talking and he said, "You know, when you say you're coming to visit me, and 'When would be a good time?' you seem to actually mean it." He was very confused. We'd been best friends with outrageous phone bills for almost 5 years and I'd never been to see him, although we had talked about it many times. "Yes. I am. When is your break?" I replied. He was shocked.

Once I decide on an action, I do it. As a by-the-by, I flew to Boston for a week, came back and was very sick when I did the passport application. I bought my ticket and was waiting for the passport to arrive. On the Saturday preceding my (Wednesday) trip, I got a letter stating that I needed to send another check as mine was post-dated and unacceptable. Panic. I called a friend and asked if he was up for a road trip to Houston to get my passport. Sunday night after work we drove half of the night, stayed in the creepiest hotel listening to fights and the occasional gunshots as we waited for morning (with furniture piled against the door just in case).

Monday morning, it took 10 minutes to get my passport (in my fever, I had written 1989 instead of 1998 on my check) and then we were free. Tuesday I had a meeting to make, and Wednesday I left for London. As long as I was in London, I thought, "Why not Paris?" I had a beautiful time. It was the warmest Valentines Day weekend in Paris in a century. Most of all, I had my passport and the world was my oyster.

What followed? A month in Italy, a week in the Netherlands, a five day weekend in Belgium, discovering the more hidden parts of the Riviera, trekking across France, Switzerland...it all blurs together. One day, returning to work, someone said to me, "Ah, now back to the real world." I smiled but thought with resentment, "THIS isn't the real world. THIS is just what pays for my trips to the real world."

Within a year, I had made the decision to move to Spain. In Barcelona I fell in love. Not with a person, but with a city, a life, a people. In the last few years it has been the place I return to whenever I want to go "home". Even so, it cannot hold me. There is always someplace more exotic to see, to live. Twice I have lived in Barcelona and twice I have received incredible job offers that I couldn't refuse.

At 29 I'll have lived on 5 continents and have traveled more than 25 countries. I've lived on the coasts of the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. In the last 3 years I have circled the globe 3-4 times. I'll be back round again in August as I return to Barcelona for a month of exams. I will have traveled for 15-38 hours at a go on planes, trains, buses, boats and in cars. My next dream? Cycling of course! As soon as I live in a country big enough for a bicycle, I hope to take it up. I've always thought I would start off easy by biking across the Netherlands (the flattest country I could think of).

Other traveling dreams? I've never crossed a desert by camel, nor crossed a country on horseback. Then maybe, just maybe it would be very interesting to cross England in a motorcycle with a side passenger car attached! The Pan-American highway is of great interest, the Orient Express and the Trans-Siberian Railway are in the near future, and I've already got my eye on a trip to Antarctica! So many things to see in this world. How to find time to see them all? I'll try.

Of course, if you have any ideas for adventures, feel free to send them to me. :-)