Question: Where Have I Actually Been?

Q: Have you actually been anywhere besides Scotland?

A: Yes I have! I have been to several places in Canada, including Ottawa, Toronto, Niagara Falls, and Quebec City. I’ve been to Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. The most memorable place I’ve been to aside from Scotland is Oahu, Hawaii.

My senior year of college, I was given the opportunity of visiting my close friend and her husband in Hawaii, where they were stationed with The Navy (yes, they were at Pearl Harbor) during spring break. It was breathtaking. I think my experiences was heightened by the fact that it was off-season for tourists, and the early-spring weather meant it was warm, but not frying-eggs-on-sidewalks hot. Plus having ‘locals’ to stay with meant I could see all of the spots on Oahu tourists tend to overlook, like the North Shore, where there were these pretty coves and smaller beaches that hardly had anyone around. It was beyond my wildest expectations. I didn’t expect the peacocks to be as wild and used to people as pigeons in New York!

Oh, and don’t get me started on the shaved ice! Ohhhh maaaaan…

The World Is Waiting!

My name is Colleen, and I love this world.

I have suffered from wanderlust since I traveled to the Scottish Highlands with my grandmother in 2000. For two weeks, I witnessed the beauty and history of a culture I’d never seen before. The thrill of seeing such a different and rich culture, experiencing it firsthand, and the idea of not knowing where I would be if I turned left instead of right…it was indescribable, even as a twelve-year-old.

Now that I’m an adult with student loans to pay, a job to keep, rent to get in on time, and a cat to feed, I’ve found myself shackled to my hometown of Syracuse, NY. Okay, maybe not shackled, but I simply can’t afford to travel to the dozens of different places I long to see and experience.

Luckily, I found Postcrossing.com.

A free (ish) website where you sign up and add your address to the mailing list, then receive a few addresses of people from all over the world. You then send postcards to them (this is where the free-ish part comes in, you need to provide cards and postage yourself). Once they are received, you qualify to receive your own cards from anyone anywhere.

So I thought I’d try it out. At best, I would start up an awesome collections of different cards, at worst I’d get bored and cancel my account.

Needless to say, I fell in love. It has been almost two years now, and I still love sending and receiving postcards from random people as far away as Japan and China and as close to home as 100 miles away (even less). Many cards include facts from the sender about their countries, some even have rare stamps and stickers attached. Each card tells a story, and I already have over 350 of them, taking up four full photo albums!

So, while I await the day I win the lottery and can afford to start actually visiting some of these spectacular destinations, I will document some of my favorite postcards and facts on this blog. I hope you enjoy the adventure as much as I have been and will continue to do!

Yours,

Colleen the Wanderer