Travel & Write // Write & Travel

My beautiful city of Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria.

Never {ever, ever} travel and not write.

I love this rule. It is one of the best travel lessons I have ever learned.

This little rule was founded on two different occasions. The first was my fourth grade class trip to Washington, D.C. My dad was a chaperone on this three day excursion and bought me a journal beautifully adorned with a nighttime photograph of the Kennedy Center. When I retured home, I wrote all about our fun little trip. The following year, when I was ten, we took a family vacation to the British Virgin Islands. My dad and uncle chartered a sailboat from island to island for a week. {If you are on the hunt for a great family vacation, this is definitely one}. While away, my mom encouraged my sister and I to take some time at the end of each day and write a journal entry. I still read both of these. It is rewarding to go back years later and discover what the highlights of my day were as a ten-year-old girl.

When I lived in Bulgaria for four months the spring semester of my junior year of college, I decided to start my very first blog. Granted this was only two years ago, but I am still shocked at the memories my blog brings back. Those were some of the best, most eye-opening four months of my life. I loved my little Bulgarian world, and I relish the feeling that my writing of those days has the power to bring back.

You don’t have to be a pro writer to keep a record of your travels. Even the simplest journal full of bullet lists and one-word scribbles from your excursions will give you something to glance back at. Check out my Bulgarian blog if you’re looking for a place to begin your travel writing: A Crossroads. I promise – you won’t regret following this little rule.