catapult magazine

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Where have we traveled?

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Josh
Apr 02 2003
05:02 am

Don’t wait till you’re rich to travel. First, you don’t have to be and second, you’ll never travel if you do. The summer I got out of school, I just delivered pizza for two months and was able to cover backpacking in Europe for about 7 weeks. We originally went to see sites, but those got boring fast and the people became amazing. We met some kids at a Christian hostel (The Shelter in the Red light district in Amsterdam, very cool) and they invited us to stay with them in Germany. At one point we found ourselves chopping wood with Germans in an old orchard. That was amazing and more memorable than the Louvre in a lot of ways. A lot of unexpected people to stay with showed up on the way and that made it great.

I got the opportunity to go to China this past fall and that was incredible. This was a research trip in the Yunnan province, so I basically stayed in the same village most of the time. I’ve never been that remote before and I really loved how alien things were. Europe had a real familiarity to it, but China’s a kick in the face when it comes to culture shock. (In a good way.)

America is also a big favorite. Even though we can get down on it, the midwest really is beautiful in the summer and it has it’s own leisurely feel. I got to visit Red Rock canyon outside of Las Vegas last summer and I loved bouldering in the desert.

So don’t wait till you’re rich. These are places I’ve gone in the last two years and I haven’t made over $8/hr since delivering pizza. It’s all about where your priorities are (and whether or not you have a family.) If you do have a family, try to travel around the states at least once a year with your kids. That’s what my parents did and it gave me a real hunger for the world.