Today I received a beautiful travel-journal written by Fran Meneses and have already finished reading it. Sounds epic, but it's a very small book, so that's ok :) This travel-journal is about Fran's and her friend Monse's trip to Paris and London. Fran is Spanish who lives in Berlin with her husband and two cats. She is an illustrator, blogger and youtuber, and she tells her story mainly through her drawings. It's such a beautiful little book with tips, recommendations and emotions that I can't even tell. It reminds me why I love travelling on my own so much. Fran writes about spliting with her friend during the trip on some occasions because they wanted to see different things and on one occasion she even had to change her plan to see an exhibition she was excited about, just because her friend did not want to go to Montmartre on her own! So selfish of her friend and so nice of Fran, but no one would have stopped me from doing my thing :) She also writes about being homesick and trying to adapt in a new country. She meets Estee from Essie Button who had moved from Canada to England years ago. They spent a beautiful day together, sharing their thoughts and experiences on the matter and I absolutely agree with Estee - everything's gonna be fine :) Life is beautiful!
Do you guys write your own travel journals? I do. But mine is not even close to Fran's. My journal is more like a diary. Every time I fill it in, I feel it's too boring, my writing is rubbish, everything is very bad, including my handwriting. But I never give up and just keep doing it. I know that when I read it in half a year, every word will be worth of a gold. It's funny how many things you forget in such a short period of time. Last year I travelled a bit with my Mom. Well, she actually came to England to visit me and I asked her to fill my diary in with her thoughts. It's so interesting to read about the same trip through the perspective of another person, especially when the person is from another generation. It is fun, but I just love travelling on my own. So many people cannot understand that and find it shockingly astonishing, but that's the way I am and this is what my personality needs.
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| My travel journal. I got it from Paperchase a year ago. |
So these are some of the reasons why I travel on my own:
- I do not have to compromise on where to stay (£££) or how to get to places of interest (I can walk all day and this is what I do);
- I go to museums, exhibitions, parks, and other places of my own choice;
- I can spend as much time as I like on choosing postcards in souvenir shops or simply browsing at quirky shops. Or take as many shots as I want until I am satisfied with the one and no one is rushing me because someone is hungry or tired;
- I am responsible only for myself and I do not have to babysit someone else (trust me, there are people like that).
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| The stuff in my journal. |
As I have mentioned above, same as Fran I live far away from my native country. I moved to England from Lithuania nearly four years ago and I am glad I did it. I never was homesick or anything like that and I never had this feeling in my life. I remember when I entered university and moved to our capital city, my friends used to whine how much they miss their home and they used to go back to their home towns as often as they could. Whereas, I used to go home as less frequent as possible because I never fell the need to. It's the same story now. I do not miss my country and I probably would never go there if I did not feel the responsibility to see my friends and family there. Probably every town in England has Eastern European Food Store, but I shop there only couple of times a year. And that is not because I miss some specific foods, I just love discovering what's new on the market. The reason why I do not shop in Eastern European Food Stores is that I want to adapt to the country I live in as best as I can. I also want to know as much about the country I live in as I can and trust me, even simple thing like grocery shopping in local supermarket can tell you a lot about it. I should probably make a separate post about my grocery favourites :)
Oh dear. This post did not turn up as I planned it. It had to be praise of Fran Maneses talents only, but it turned out into something more personal :) Hope you do not mind :)
If this is the first time you heard about Fran, you should definitely check her blog! And if you would like to get her book, you can do it here! :)
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