For me travel was inborn, I think. My parents were refugees from Latvia who arrived in the UK in 1947 after spending 3 years in a displaced persons’ camp in Germany. My father had also spent time in Russia, and a so-called aunt had been a stewardess on cargo ships and had travelled around the world in the 1930s. I was therefore brought up hearing stories about other countries and travel didn’t seem that exotic. I got my first passport when I was 12 when Latvian family friends took me with them on a holiday through Germany and Austria.
I remember, when I was a child, I had a set of happy families cards which featured countries around the world with four cities per country. One was Innsbruck so I was really excited to actually visit the city during that holiday. Another was New York City featuring the Empire State Building. I was so excited to be standing on the viewing platform of this building during a cat sit in 2018 and thinking that I would never have imagined standing there when I was playing happy families as a child.
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What wonderful memories. My family are all stay at home people. The furthest my father travelled in his lifetime was London. I’m the oddball. They cannot understand the attraction. I’m giving each of my grandchildren their first passport on their 21st birthday. My gift to them is “the world”
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Speaking as an average American, I think there’s often a spark - some trip where you catch the travel bug. For me, it was my first international travel during college that really opened up my world. Now I want to see everything!