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I suppose most of you are familiar with this: you want to travel. Explore things, have new experiences, feel history and indulge in new impressions. Hear, see, taste, smell and feel how things are in a different place. Leaving the daily routine behind. But many times you lack opportunity: time, money, or both of them.

I’ve been out and about travelling a lot these past months and I have a another bigger trip coming up soon so for lack of money it’ll be the end of the party for me, too. BUT in my stubbornness I don’t really see why and I started pondering my options. Finally, I came up with my – for me – new way of travelling: voyages of discovery. You might think that that’s exactly the same but, nah, it isn’t. The plan is quite simply to go on tour where I already live.

No matter if I am in the countryside or in the Ruhrpott (urban region along the river „Ruhr“, old mining industry), where I study – I haven’t explored my closer surroundings too much until now. After two years of living in Essen I still haven’t visited our most famous landmark, the Zeche Zollverein (old coal mine), a state I’d like to change. After coming up with this incredibly simple concept, I bought some books: a regional travel guide, two books about my region and my state as well as the ultimate bucket list of places in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The travel guide is sorted according to interests and activities, which is a great help whenever I spontaneously want to go out and see something, while the other books are sorted by geographical location and help me to prepare myself for excursions that I plan with more time in advance instead of just stomping along on a whim.

I am very excited about my excursions and I am hell bend on considering them mini-vacations, a one-day-journey, or a full-blown weekend-trip. My original problem being lack of funds is why I bought the four books mentioned second hand – that way you can save money and if you choose carefully the books might appear as good as new.

I hope I managed to make you ponder and set you alight with travel nerves, even if it is just a trip to somewhere next door.

XOXO

Sarah