Where my travel genes come from….

My grandfather has said it since I was little: I was going to be a lawyer when I grew up, but also: I was going to see the world and travel to far places. For some time it seems he would get both things right, until I dropped out of Law school to pursue photography.

He got the other thing right though, my bucket list is never ending and I’m always busy planning new adventures. It made me wonder why I am this way. Sure; traveling is fun and lots of people go on vacations, but to some people (like me) it’s essential, it’s one of the things that defines me.

Eventually all of this thinking led me to my dad. Before he met my mom, he used to be a ship engineer that traveled the world. Since he’s not a man of that many words, I heard snippets but never really thought about him as a traveler, never made the connection between his travels and my need for adventure. Until the moment I really asked him about it. He told me about all the countries he visited; most of Europe, Russia, Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria, Cameroon, North America, Canada, Brazil, Uruguay & Argentina. He told me about the people he met, things that had happened on the ship, how he got ‘baptized’ the first time he crossed the equator. His are stories make my travelers’ heart beat faster (ok, except for the ship part, since I get very easily sea sick ;-)).

He didn’t began working on those ships aiming to travel the world though, at the time it was just something that was connected with the kind of work he did. But when speaking with him about it; you can tell he’s proud. He really enjoyed this time of his life and even has a scrapbook full of plain tickets, official papers and receipts that he kept. I really enjoyed scrolling through all of it as research for this blogpost. Especially the photos of course, with those beautiful colors that only film offers.

I like to think that my need for traveling and adventurers is something I inherited from him: my dad who traveled the world…