The best thing about reading someone’s travel blog over a travel guide is you get to enjoy the personality of the writer. Don’t get me wrong, guides are fantastic and always worth having a look at if you can but the reason we get addicted to reading a certain blog is because after a while of reading their work you feel like you know them. You make a connection to that writer and that makes you excited whenever they post something new. So if you’ve clicked on this post it means you want to get to know me better. I wouldn’t say I’m an interesting person but I’ll leave that judgement with you.
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Just A Girl Called Claire
So where to start? I’m just a girl in her mid twenties trying to make the most out of life. I was never obsessed with the whole find a man, get married and start a family thing like everyone else around me. I never dreamt about the perfect man or the perfect wedding or the perfect family. It was something I assumed I’d do it one day (after all wasn’t that what we were supposed to do?) but I was in no rush. I was more focused on building a career for myself. I knew what I wanted and I knew it wasn’t going to be easy but I was determined to make it happen. I’d worry about that other stuff later.
What changed? Well, when the long term relationship that started while I was at university had ended I’ll admit I was devastated. We had realised we were wrong for each other and decided not to make the mistake of settling down just for the sake of being with someone. While it wasn’t a bad breakup, that doesn’t mean it was easy to handle losing someone who had been such an important part of my life for so long. I was unhappy and for the first time my career no longer mattered to me. I had nothing to focus on and that was hard for me to handle.
When Claire Gets Curious…
After a few months went by, while sitting in my garden on a rare British summer day, I started to think about how my dad had wanted us to move to Australia when we were younger and I couldn’t shake the idea out of my head. I was dreaming of a move down under. Would it have been to run away? Maybe. I’ll admit that. I started doing a lot of research about the country and when I started looking at what visa I would need I realised I wasn’t high enough in my career to use that to get a visa. My heart sank. I wasn’t sure if I was going to do it but it was a nice thought and more importantly, it was giving me something to focus on.
I then started to think about my brothers backpacking trip around Australia and realised I could do that instead. Although at this point in my life I wasn’t really much of a traveller. I had been brought up to be a typical British tourist only going away for some sun and mainly only visiting Spain. Could I do something like this? I quickly realised if I did go it would be by myself and that scared me as I was a rather shy, quiet girl who didn’t like going out of her comfort zone. I decided a test run somewhere in Europe would be a good idea to see how I handled traveling alone. Honestly, this part is a bit of a blur for me. It wasn’t like me but I quickly booked a train to Paris and off I went.
Taking The First Step
That first solo trip to Paris was exciting but i’ll admit I was nervous too. I’d never been one for starting conversations so it was hard for me to make friends in my hostels, especially when a lot of people only spoke broken English and I, being a typical Brit, couldn’t speak any other languages. I actually got lucky to bump into someone I knew from home while out there. It helped relax me but the trip didn’t prove to me that I could handle solo travel. So a few months later I went to Brussels and this time it felt a lot more comfortable and that’s when the travel addiction truly hit.
Slowly the idea of just backpacking around Australia seemed less important. I dream of doing it one day but right now I’m busy enjoying what Europe has to offer. I love Europe. I’m lucky to live in London and be so close to so many amazing countries. I’m even luckier that I have a job that makes it easy for me to travel frequently. But when you have a passion for something you’ll make it happen for you. Travel is my passion.
Don’t get me wrong, my career is still important to me which is why I haven’t quit my day job to travel the world but maybe one day I will. At the moment I don’t know but life is an adventure and I want to make the most of it.
Welcome Curious Claire
It’s so funny to think about how much my life has changed since then. That one decision to give solo travel a try, led me down a road where travel has become one of the most important parts of my life. I’ve been lucky to go on many adventures of the years and now I can’t picture a life where I don’t travel.
Of course as you know, my love of travel led me to discover a love for travel blogging and here we are. That one decision all those years ago has led me to become Curious Claire. This blog has led me to some fantastic experiences that I treasure greatly. I’m so lucky I discovered this passion for travel and travel blogging.
So there you have it. The story of how Claire gets curious and becomes Curious Claire.
Like these personal posts?
If you like these more personal posts, you make like the following:
- Confessions of My First Solo Trip
- The Time I Had 24 Hours to Flee Poland
- Why I Want To Return to Korea On A Non Business Trip
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