Are you ready for the next step in your big trip planning?
I like this step best. It’s all about finding inspiration and reading as much as you can! Find out if there is a bookstore near you that specialises in travel books. Go to the library and borrow a few guidebooks. I really enjoyed reading Rough Guides’ First Time Around the World. It’s a book full of resources that will inspire you. It helped me lots when I didn’t know where to begin. I also recommend you download some travel movies, make some popcorn and dream away. My favorite is Into the Wild. Get tissues.
Even though this step is about inspiration, it’s easy to make the pitfall of focussing too much on one particular travel style or subject. Try to keep all of your options open. Dream about Myanmar as well as Kenya, Louisiana, Norway and Peru. Think big, think small. The ultimate goal here is figuring out what your dream journey is. For me, this step never ends. I constantly look for inspiration everywhere I go and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do.
One of my favorite things to do when I need some travel inspiration is to read travel blogs and I wanted to share some of them with you. Here are some of my favorites, I hope you enjoy them. Most of these are photography centered, which helps a lot with dreaming away.
I climbed my first real mountain yesterday, achievement unlocked! It’s the one in the background!
This picture was taken two days ago. We were walking around a gorgeous mountain lake. I can never resist walking into a field of wildflowers. If you have a garden, that’s all you should do with it. Wildflowers and vegetables.
We are in a mountain village in Austria, enjoying the sun, drinking wine and catching up with family who we haven’t seen in a year. They brought our dog, which they have been taking care of for the last year. She is just as cute as she was when we left home.
What are you doing this weekend? If you’re escaping the heat or the bad weather and are looking for something to read, here are a few of our favorite links for this week.
We really miss having a kitchen and can’t wait to live somewhere where we can try all of these tasty looking recipes (also great website design!) // Spoon fork bacon
9 months. It’s been 9 months since we left home. 9 months of just him and me. There was never any doubt if we could do this. We moved in together after three weeks and we haven’t been apart since. 5 years and 7 months ago we met and I still love him as much as I did then, more even. We are seeing the world together. There are a few great things in the world, this is one of them.
This picture was taken in Vietnam. We had just arrived and we were looking for coffee. This was the first place we saw, the floor covered in cigarette buds, just some stools and tables in someone’s living room. They served the best Vietnamese coffee. This is where I learned to drink coffee. I remember tasting it and being surprised. Vietnamese coffee tastes like chocolate, milk chocolate with lots of sugar and coffee. It’s divine. There was a kitten on a rope tied to a pole, playing with a ball of string. We just sat there and loved it. So many memories have already been made and there are so many new memories waiting to be made.
Nick’s sister is joining us for a while, she will be here for our new memories. We made this for her because she’s excited out of her mind. // Countdown
We’ve said it before but we really love to learn, this website is so great // Skillshare
I don’t know why I haven’t seen this website before, it’s about everything we love // We Heart
This website is actually for kids, but we love it too // DIY
We’re going to be in NZ in a couple of months and we can’t wait to visit this place // Memphis Belle
Saturdays used to be so much fun. It meant sleeping in, biking to the market for fresh vegetables and fruit and making dinners that take hours of preparation. Also Saturday night meant cuddling up on the couch with a movie or hanging out with friends and the occasional party.
When you’re self-employed and catching up on work (even though we absolutely love what we do), Saturday is just like any other day: you get up way too early, go to work, work far too long, eat something at the Indian restaurant near the subway, go home and collapse on the bed. Rinse, repeat. I think we need a day off soon. And I think Nick needs to make one of my favorite dishes, his lasagna made from scratch. It takes a whole day to make and it is so damn good.
After organizing my bookmarks this morning I realized I have so many things that I’d love to share with you so I’ll try to share one of these every week.. Here are some of the things that inspire us.
A lot of people might have already seen it, but this is a great TED talk. // The TED talk
We accidentally walked into this shop while exploring one of Kuala Lumpur’s malls. It is one of the best shops ever. Everything is very basic, but so well designed. Even the pencils looks adorable. We checked it out online later, and of course it’s Japanese. // Muji
This makes us want to go and build a cabin in the woods, and sit around naked while painting trees. // Beaverbrook
We love travel blogs that are unlike any other // Nomadik Nation
As soon as we get ourselves a place to live we are going to subscribe to this. Such a great idea. These guys send you a gift from different designers each month. They’ve sent out some really nice stuff in the past. // Not Another Bill
One of the countries that we are sure will inspire us is Iceland. They are currently voting what the best name for Iceland will be. Lets get Lost Land or Isle of Awe Land. Which one do you think is best? // Inspired by Iceland
We like to educate ourselves and the great people of Coursera are making education available for everyone. And it’s free! The courses are from critically acclaimed universities from all over the world, and are in a great range of subjects, from design to social psychology, to creative programming. // Coursera
