My childhood travel dreams

The minute I learned about the Pinoy Travel Bloggers’ Blog Carnival theme for the month of April my mind suddenly took a drive down memory lane trying to think what were my dreams as a child.

As a kid I grew up watching mostly american programs like the xfiles, beverly hills 90210 and melrose place (until my mom banned me from watching them coz they got hotter!), Douggie Houser MD and whole lot other programs.

At that time being a hopeless romantic, yes even as I child I was, I was in love with the idea how people walk their dates to their doors and get a kiss. But what stuck most in my mind was how people lived in buildings with these huged windowed studio apartments.

I wanted to live a fast paced american life. I wanted to bike from my home to my school. Walk from a grocery store with a paper bag full of stuff. Walk my girl up to the doors of her apartment and wait to be asked if I want to come in and have coffee, of course you know what coffee means right? Well at least that what was going on in my head. Thinking about it now, I am a pretty dirty minded child! LOL!

A few years after, working in the BPO industry opened a lot of things for me, including fulfilling a dream that may have been less prioritized but not forgotten. After a couple of months managing a few accounts, our client decided to take us to the United States for training.

It seemed to be so surreal as I realized that I have always pictured my self riding a plane and going somewhere far and oh my this was the first time that I am gonna be in one!

We trained for a couple of days and the rest was all leisure. Though California is a great place I really wanted to go to, the America that I have always pictured in my mind that is New York. (love you chelle! peace! =D )

It was a very short stay and I didn’t mind if were to spend even six hours on a plane getting to New York. I wanted to see the city even just for a night and experience how it was to walk around the big apple!

Unfortunately our host discouraged us and my companion cowardly conceded and ditched the plan. My state of mind was that I don’t know if I could be back there in my lifetime so I wanted to maximize the opportunity.

I was determined to get my self to the airport and get the soonest flight.  But Los Angeles wasn’t that cooperative, at the middle of the night when everyone was asleep I went outside of our house in Glendale. With couple of shirts in my backpack I looked for public transportation. I waited for a few hours but I had no luck! That is what I don’t like about Los Angeles, you’ll never get to anywhere without a car! I was so frustrated that it took me sometime just to get over the fact that I didn’t see my dream city.

Over the years I learned about a lot of things specially when my mom bought a complete set of Encyclopedia. Yep! the whole 24 volumes of it. 54kbps internet connection was a luxury back then! To be honest, call me a weirdo but I actually enjoyed flipping through the pages of those books. As the cliche goes, it took me to different places I couldn’t afford. It taught me how to dream more than what I have already dreamed for.

And with these books my dream to live in a Chateau in Paris was born. I thought of going to Paris and learn how grand these houses are and build my self one for my family.

The books also took me to Latin and South America where I was amazed with the beach culture and how liberated they are. I wanted to see the beautifully chaotic and colorful culture of Mexico. Ride one of the volkswagen beetles plying the streets of the city. Say a prayer at the Guadalupe Cathedral and gaze at the huge mural on the national library.

I also wanted to see the Carnival in Brazil and bask under the Rio de Janiero Sun. I was amazed at how different their culture was comparing it from the conservative Manila that I know.

As I child I was so free to dream about things and thanks to mom she bought those books that let me build these visions. Today I continue to work to fulfill these dreams and make them into reality hopefully before 2014.  This time I’ll make sure to see the big apple where I’ll start an epic journey!

This is my contribution to the “”My Ultimate Dream Destination And My Pledge To Turn it into A Reality” Blog Carnival hosted by Robx Bautista of thetravelingdork.com for the Pinoy Travel Bloggers.