Itching Wanderlust

A strange title for a post I am sure many people will identify with! Wanderlust as I am sure you are aware is the desire to travel. A sentiment expressed neatly in a single German word that runs through my veins every single day. When I first moved to Paris, all I wanted to do was to experience something new. I will try everything once if it means I might feel more like a local. Jazz bar in Saint Michel? I'm in. Fireman's Ball? Of course! I never got around to organising the long interrailing trip whilst at university and now I am starting to feel like I should have. I have been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to live in a foreign country as well as chance to explore a few corners of the world. However, now that I have started working I am being to wish I had spent those long holidays we were so used to roaming the continent that I call home. 

I would like to point out at this moment that I would never do this by train. The overnight train to Venice has put me off that particular fantasy! This year, I am aiming to have a fe mini breaks. That is if time and money permit. The list of preferred destinations is currently: Bordeaux, Berlin and Amsterdam. Although not necessarily in that order I feel like these are all close enough but intriguing enough to make the most out of a weekend in a new city. If anyone can suggest another city beginning with A then this could be my ABBA year! 

I'm not the world's best planner of things to do on holiday. My ideas tend to revolve around finding the hotel with the best deals or how to get to and from the airport. When Mike and I arrived in Copenhagen, we soon realised that we hadn't actually planned what we were going to do. This doesn't mean we wasted our holiday though. I feel like the first time you visit somewhere you have to try and get to know its personality. You can only do that by exploring it. Days spent wandering down countless roads, peering into quirky shops and lunches spent sampling the local cuisine are in my opinion the only way to travel. I love a museum as much as the next woman but how much does it tell you about the city you're in? I suppose that's why I am More Native Than The Natives though! 

I will finish here with an apt quote from one of my favourite eccentric Frenchmen, Marcel Proust "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes."