traveldave's VirtualTourist Home Page

"THE WORLD IS A BOOK, AND THOSE WHO DO NOT TRAVEL READ ONLY A PAGE."
(Saint Augustine)

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TRAVEL BIOGRAPHY
Travel offers the best opportunity to learn about this world. Ever since I was a young boy, I read as much as I could about different cultures and countries, but I have learned more from traveling to far off places than by reading about them in books and magazines.

I got the travel bug early, when my parents took me to most of the American states. We moved around a lot, and I have lived in Connecticut, Idaho, Colorado, Vermont, California, Illinois, and now Indiana. Living in different parts of the country like that made me appreciate the variety of things to see and do in the United States.

I first started traveling internationally when I went to Canada on family vacations and on school trips. Even in my early teens, I dreamed of traveling to foreign countries and seeing the world. I first went to Europe right after graduating from high school. I had taken four years of French, and jumped at the chance to go to France on a language/cultural program. I lived for five weeks with a French family, none of whom spoke any English. This was a great opportunity to learn more French and experience a foreign culture first hand.

I returned to Europe two years later, when I went there with my brother Jeff on a student tour. We visited 16 countries over a six-week period. At that time, East Germany, Hungary, and Yugoslavia were still under Communist control, and it was an exciting and eye-opening experience to go there during the Cold War.

During my college years I concentrated on my studies and only managed to go to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico with a couple of friends, and to Jamaica by myself.

After that, I got married and worked to build my career. I was earning enough money to really start traveling again. However, most of the trips I took were either package tours (which included airfare and a week's stay in a hotel) or guided tours. The package trips were not bad, since I was able to do what I wanted during the trip. On the other hand, I did not like guided tours much at all. Although I was able to visit some fascinating countries and cities, I was stuck in a group seeing sights at the group's pace.

Later, I got divorced and changed careers. Due to life's ups and downs, I was not always able to travel to the places I really wanted to see. Although I prefer to visit foreign countries, there were times when I was only able to travel to nearby cities and states. I had become guilty of ignoring places close to home, thinking there was nothing of interest to excite me. Since joining Virtual Tourist, however, I have looked at travel, especially local travel, differently. I started to visit nearby attractions to take pictures for my Virtual Tourist pages, and in doing that, it became fun and interesting to revisit many of the places I went to when I was younger. I have enjoyed periodic short road trips to see and photograph places here in the United States that I otherwise would not have had the desire to see. Now, thanks to Virtual Tourist, I can find something worthwhile wherever I go.

Recently, my situation has changed, and I am starting once again to travel to more distant and "exotic" places. This time, I am combining two of my passions: travel and birdwatching. One of the nice things about birdwatching trips is that the countries I will be visiting are a bit off the beaten path, allowing me to see some of the more remote corners of the world. Now, I am taking birdwatching trips to foreign countries every six months or so, and am trying to have at least one trip booked at all times. I now have trips booked to Djibouti and Somalia in February 2010.

My travel goal is to visit at least 100 independent countries (I am currently up to 46). Even if I do not attain that goal, what great times I will have and what wonderful things I will see! And in trying to reach my goal, I will have read more than just a page of this book that is the world.

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