When I travel I don’t always end up going to the places I intended to go to. Sometimes I recycle a lot of destinations I’ve already been to. I’ve been to Portugal more times than I can count, I’ve backpacked Australia 3 times and I’ve done the Greek Islands twice. I went to Bali and lived there for a year. Whilst there’s nothing wrong with that, and it can be nice to explore a country in depth, it also means I have ignored some of the items on my bucket list.
Why do I repeat destinations? Simple. If I like a place I want to go back. But perhaps it’s also because I seek familiarity. As a long-term traveller, I find I choose destinations because I have friends living there that I would like to visit. Other times, I’ll make great friends whilst backpacking and decide to join them on the road for a bit.
That’s not to say I haven’t already crossed some things off my bucket list. I drank beer at Oktoberfest in Munich, went swimming with sea lions in the Nullarbor, took a gondola ride in Venice and went skydiving in Byron Bay. And that’s only a small portion of the exciting things I’ve done in the last three years. But really there are lots of things that I am burning to do.
So lately I’ve been updating my bucket list to organise myself and motivate me to get the ball rolling. This isn’t a “things to do before you die” list though, this is a list of the things I would like to do in the next couple of years…hopefully
- Take the Amtrak train across America
- See New York at Christmas time
- Snap a cool photo on the salt flats in Bolivia
- Have a shot of vodka in Russia
- Gamble in Vegas
- Learn a foreign language properly
- Do a winter season in the Alps and learn to ski
- See the Northern Lights
- Swim in the Blue Lagoon in Iceland
- Party hard in Budapest
- Do another Skydive
- Visit the Pyramids in Egpyt
- Smoke shisha (hookah pipe) in Istanbul
- Tour India’s Golden Triangle
- Attend a summer music festival in Europe
- Experience Burning Man in Nevada
- Be in Rio during Carnival
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I tend to revisit countries as well. I’ve been to Brazil a minimum of 5 times, and I know I’ll definitely be returning in the future!!
Some place just keep calling you back!