Achoo! I have the Travel Bug...

Up until about two and a half years ago, I had little desire to travel. Anywhere. At all. Ever. I'd seen most of the cities, and many of the little townships in my country and only two places had ever enticed me to want to return. I would just like to say, I live in an amazing country, with beautiful, varying landscapes. However, they never really awakened anything in me. I thought to my young little self:
Why would anyone want to travel? Why would I want to travel? The world looks nice, but I have everything I need at home. Other places might be scary or strange. I like my culture. I don't need to experience any other. Why would people waste their money on holidays and experiences, when they can buy stuff and keep that for years? A holiday is over in a few weeks. That's not as good as buying something to keep.

Yeah, can I just slap my old self? I understand where I was coming from, I mean, for a good portion of my life, I owned next to nothing. I used to think that if someone were to give me $20, that would just be the most amazing thing ever. Hey, I was only young and only ever got given anything on my birthday or Christmas.

So, anyway, about 3 years ago my parents decided that they wanted to take my sister and I on a family holiday to Hawaii. Considering I'd only ever been out of the country once before, you'd think I would have been jumping for joy, right? Wrong. I totally freaked out. For some reason, I thought that Hawaii was going to be like a deserted island, where there were some hotels, but most people lived in poverty and forced you to do weird things like killing your own animals and eating them. Ignorant much? My parents laughed at me, and were (luckily) able to convince me otherwise. I stuck firm to me old beliefs about travel, nevertheless. That was, until we arrived there.

Oh, my poor, poor parents. They want to have a nice holiday, but there was me resisting it until we got there. And then, there was my sister. She got a culture shock when we landed in Fiji for a stop-off. Strangely, it wasn't the different culture, it wasn't the tribal carvings in the airport, it wasn't the lack of some technology that scared her: it was the food. Food, which may I add, was pretty much identical to the food we ate back home. She even convinced herself that aeroplane food was weird, as has refused to eat it ever since. Heck, when we actually arrived in Hawaii, she wouldn't eat Subway because she thought it was different. Let me say that again: Subway. You can't get any more generic! She got over it after a day, but she's been weirdly picky with food ever since.

Aloha! Checkin' out the view in Hawaii.

After all the drama at the beginning was over (which included being told that our hotel room had been given away to other people) we settled into Hawaii. Within hours of being there, I completely fell in love with the island/s. We stayed downtown Waikiki on the island of Oahu for the first few days. It was such a designer city; nature mixed with capitalism. Let's just say, I was in my element there.

After a few days of shopping, exploring, and hearing a lifetime's worth of information on Obama (who had grown up in the city and was only recently elected president at the time) we moved on to the island of Hawai'i, also known as "The Big Island". I only needed to land there to know I was in love with the place. It was much less developed than Oahu, and one to the most peaceful places to be around. We stayed at a large hotel on the beach, with huge rooms, and everything you could ever want or need. We went snorkeling with rainbow coloured fish and turtles, saw an active volcano and visited the monument of King Kamehameha (oh please say I spelt that right) amongst many other things. I'll never forget driving around the island, listening to a radio station that only played reggae Christmas carols, seeing a Zebra in someone's backyard (so random) and eating fatty American pizza, while strange advertisements for mobiles that sung "Shake your funny maker, shake it shake it hard! That's insanium in the cranium! I'm laughing on the dark and pitiful inside!" played in the breaks of the continuous Christmas movies that were on TV.

After that, we flew back to Waikiki/ Honolulu. I'm so glad be went back, because it was even better the second time around. Christmas decorations were everywhere. I even remember screaming carols to people in a hotel opposite us on Christmas eve. We went to some luau on Christmas day. Though it was obviously a big fake for tourists, it was magical.
Being in the middle of a restaurant when the entire city's power supply was terrifying. Obama was visiting, so everyone thought there was going to be an attack, and ran through the streets screaming. Luckily, it was just a freak ancient at the power stations, but it still gave everyone the fright of their lives. It's a great story to tell now, though.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back to the present. A few months ago, my family started planning another holiday. This time, I jumped at the chance to travel. If I learnt anything from Hawaii, it is that the world is amazing, and I want to see more of it. Living a life warped by high school views can be very... just bad. You can't see anything in perspective. At all. All you think of is school work and your social life. Which is very depressing if you're like me, and have the two severely out of balance.

Anyway, in a few months time, I am going to be travelling to Europe! How exciting! I'm going to London, Paris, Venice and Rome. Plus, I'm staying in Hong Kong for a few days on the way back. I am beyond ecstatic! Knowing that I've got this trip to look forward to is one of the only things getting me through the year. Senior is tough, and knowing there's a light at the end of the tunnel certainly helps.

I love European culture. Venice and Rome are definitely going to be the highlights of the trip for me. They're just so different, and beautiful. It similar to my desire to travel to Barcelona (or anywhere in Spain) one day. Hawaii really did give me the travel bug. Now that I've seen some of the world, I want to see more and more. My sister is probably going to freak out about the food, and my Dad is going to fail at the languages (the guy once asked for a chocolate gateaux and pronounced it "gay-tox" and said "maranets" instead of marionettes a few days ago), but that's going to be all part of it.

Venice, oh Venice! Guess who's going to be staying on this street?

So, once again, I'm looking forward to what is going to be a highly strange, highly fun, highly historical and highly beautiful family holiday. It'll probably be my last, seeing as I graduate from school next yer, so I'm going to make sure that I really enjoy it and don't take a second for granted.