"Is there anything, apart from a really good chocolate cream pie and receiving a large, unexpected cheque in the post, to beat finding yourself in a large foreign city on a fair spring evening....? I just love it. I could spend my life arriving each evening in a new city." Bill Bryson, Neither Here Nor There
Well, here it is at last - my travel blog. Travel is one of my biggest interests. I never tire of experiencing other cultures, customs, landscapes and languages. I find the sense of freshness and newness of an unknown destination (and of a known destination too) exhilarating, and the above quote sums up my feelings very succinctly. I therefore really enjoy writing about the places I've travelled to and trying, as best as I can, to describe my reaction to them. For some reason it's taken me ages to actually set up a blog about travelling. Maybe it's because of time demands, and the fact that when once I get started writing I can't stop. And I've travelled to a lot of places over the years so I have lots of material to draw on.
I'm also aware that it's a new year, a time of making resolutions and trying to be faithful to them. I'm not very good at keeping New Year resolutions but writing about travel is something I enjoy so maybe that will make sticking to my goal much easier. Unfortunately, I suspect it won't, but I will try. Last year was a particularly interesting year, as I visited two European capitals I know quite well - Berlin and Vienna - and two for the first time - Bucharest and Rome. I also spent some time in Transylvania, one of the most fascinating places I've travelled to, but also one of the most difficult to describe. But I'll start with Romania, and see where I end up after that....
