I have always loved traveling - always!
When I was a kid, my parents used to take their little girls all over Europe. Every single year our family vaca was a big deal. My mom prefers the North of Europe so we went to Sweden and Denmark, while my dad loves the Mediterranean countries thus we explored Italy, Croatia, Portugal, Greece and Spain. I have also been to Austria, England and France a couple times, so traveling has always been an important part of my life. Thankfully my wonderful parents were never big fans of straw hats, hotel animation and beer bottles on the beach, therefore we always stayed in places that were rarely visited by other tourists. During our trips we would hang out with locals and natives, explore and live the lifestyle of the country we visited, we would shop at traditional markets, and only eat food that was typical for our destination.
A few years later the kids were pretty much grown up so the family trips stopped, and my sister and I went away on our own magnificent trip to New York. However, my attitude towards travelling has never changed! Whenever it's avoidable I stay away from touristic places simply because I do not hit the road to spend my precious vacation time with people who can't tell me anything valuable about the country I visit. I am really not interested in jumping animators and awful karaoke nights... being a little judgemental here, I know ;-)
Anyway, without exception I try to learn the country's language as good as I can, I indulge in traditional food, I explore secret hidden spots that no tourist has ever seen and try to adopt new habits and a different lifestyle while traveling. You can clearly tell that I am not a girl who travels to relax at the beach all day while tanning Jersey-like and wasting her time with booze (ok, I made an exception for Miami and Vegas). In contrast to the stereotypical tourist, I am the dedicated adventurer who never stops exploring the unknown nature, food and people.
How fabulous (and ironic) is it that this post shows a touristic beach? One exception again, it's a wonderfully natural beach with pine trees and stunningly clear water in Formentor, I just couldn't resist... BUT placed my towels far from the other beach-goers of course ;-) Enjoy!
