reflections of a travel whore

I'm going to throw this out first- I'm a Europhile...I love Europe. I majored in European History in college. I love other places too but Europe has me sprung. If you know me, I usually go to Italy because I'm half Italian and all. I love that country way too much. The history, art, and over all beauty are great. Sure their politics are as shit as our's but once you've been wooed and seduced by an Italian boy you'll understand.

This time last year I was in Italy rounding off my grand European adventure. I've been going to Italy almost yearly now and was certain that I would return this year. However, due to unplanned financial circumstances and such I could not. It totally bummed me out. Anywho, I was thinking about the traveling I have been able to accomplish this year. While I didn't get to step foot on European ground this year, I still went to some cool places near and far.

Earlier this year the buzz was about Jamaica, Jamaica and more Jamaica. The trip finally happened in March and what a hot mess that was. It was fun. Extremely different from my Europhile existence that's for sure. I learned to appreciate the madness of the country even though it was stressful at times to deal with shit. I also want to travel as much as the world as possible so I'm now able to say I've been to the Caribbean.

Jamaica was my only international excursion this year. I was somewhat spoiled after having gone to about 9 different countries in total. My other ventures were more west coast based. I took two trips down to Palm Springs. It may be full of old retirees but it's pretty cheap to go for a couple of nights. I had never been there before so it was cool to check out the fancy desert and stuff-plus I got to go to Coachella, ha!

My last 'major' vacation was to Portland, Oregon. I had been wanting to go to Portland for years. I heard so many good things about the city that I wanted to find out for myself. I've also thought about moving there so I wanted to make sure I liked it just in case I do make it up there. Portland was awesome. I had never been to Oregon. California is the only west coast state I've seen. It was nice to see a new state. Portland is at the top of Oregon so I got to see the whole state. The drive sucked balls and I learned my lesson about road trips and such and such etc etc...It was great though

Being the brat and travel whore that I am, I actually rung in the new year on a mini trip. I was in Maryland visiting a friend. Where am I going with this entry? I'm not so sure myself though...but I was just stuck on not being able to travel a lot this year but in actuality, I've been to a lot of cool places and seen a lot of cool shit. Well done...and the year isn't even over yet.