My Bucket List: Top Travel Destinations and Experiences to Check Off

This year, I traveled to the Galapagos Islands and ended up on a random sailboat by myself drinking a Jack and coke after only meeting a local for an hour on the pier.  He dropped me on the sailboat and shortly thereafter left on the tender to head back to the island to drop off his boss. A good hour later I’m still just chilling with my whiskey and some good ole music watching the sharks as they swam under my feet as the stars come out, contemplating how in the hell did I get here? 

My Other Odd Situations

I’ve ended up in an underground salsa club in Jordan, headed off to Dracula’s castle and breaking up with my boyfriend as my flight was changed out of Dubai, partying in a private pool that my boss had on his private floor in Kuwait.  I partied with a British personal security officer that worked on a contract I had in Iraq 8 years later randomly in Pattaya, Thailand after meeting on Tinder. 

I met a nudist in a bar who was starting his own colony in the Philippines who I also connected with on Tinder (no he didn’t mention that prior to the meeting, but it was an interesting conversation), and another who was an Air Force pilot working to save the lives of the 13 people trapped in the cave in another part of Thailand after it collapsed. 

I drank Guinness at the source in Ireland on an unplanned trip with my girl to Germany, and I have had to run from just about every national disaster mother nature has to offer.  There are many days where I ask myself, how did I manage to get into strange situations like these, and yet I find that these situations tend to make this life more…interesting… to say the least.  

Expectations 

When I’m told “you’re crazy”, “you’re impulsive”, and at every turn someone tells me I should come home, slow down, and find a good guy and settle down with, well, let’s just say I’ve tried that.  Maybe it just wasn’t the right. time.  But even with that, I find that it’s so hard to go against the grain, the tradition, and not do what’s expected.  I admit, as I’m getting older, I’m certainly slower than I used to be.  

My body hurts and my knees crack worse than lightning on a mid-summer night.  I don’t go out every night, party like a rock star, or go on dates most days of the year, but there’s so much to see that if I can get to a fraction of it in my lifetime, I will be successful. 😉   I will admit, there are many days where I won’t leave the house, and then, one day…bam, I’m ready to head out for a week straight. 

When that happens, it’s pretty awesome to be in a new country with plenty to see and experience nearby.  It’s quite nice to have those new and different things right outside my doorway when I’m ready to make my way out into the big world.  It takes a lot to get me excited anymore, but when it does, I move mountains or at least go under, over, or through them to meet that goal.  

I think we all have our struggles in life, always wishing to be different, have more, or change the details of our lives; but it’s kinda nice to know we have some control, and we think about building who we want to be.  The situations may not be ideal, nor perfect, but it’s still amazing the things we can achieve if we put our minds to it.  My travels may not be perfect, they may be lonely at times, they may not have heat, the most comfortable beds, the ability to see everything in one place, or even my own bedroom, but they are still my travels, and I look forward to sharing those moments with you.

So, when I say I didn’t have a bucket list before I started this year, I really meant it.  I had given up on a lot of things and put them on the back burner because I was broke, had no husband or even a thought thereof, no kids, no white picket fence, no career, and I had given up.  Today, I believe that we all get another chance to see who we are and prove what we can be. 

It is a struggle to find my place in this world, but at the same time, I know that traveling is one of those things that calls to me.  I am a girl that is on one trip and always planning the next, and I am continually amazed when I travel to see or experience things that I didn’t know existed.  Just think.. when you see an animal that you didn’t know existed, it makes you tilt your head. Like, where did that come from?  Why was that never on the Discovery Channel? 

Or even, when I’ve had other writers write for me on the blog and they find these amazing places I would not have thought to visit, I am inspired. It makes me take a step back and think about all I have yet to discover and smile because I know there is still a huge world I haven’t experienced.

The 2023/2024 Bucket List

For the immediate future, my bucket list looks a bit like this (I started this article a few months ago, so I’ve marked a few off of this list already): 

• See the Running of the Bulls-Pamplona, Spain –complete!
  • The Running of the Bulls was awesome.  The festival was even better, and I I HIGHLY recommend going to this event. Not so much the bullfight.  It was interesting due to this historical/cultural value, I’ll give you that, but it’s not something I enjoyed.