Adrienne's Travels

North America South America Europe Africa Asia Oceania Antarctica

Welcome to Adrienne's Travel Pages

Click on the map to take a tour.

Hint: As you travel through this section of the site, just click on a globe to get back to this page.

How it all started

My love of travel began in High School. I learned about international school exchange programs, and I was intrigued. I wound up spending my senior year as exchange student to Germany in 1982-83. I learned to speak fluent German and had the opportunity to truly experience another culture on a day-to-day basis. While I was there, I was able to travel around Germany and occasionally out of the country during the school breaks. I was still pretty young, and made a few mistakes here and there, but overall, I fell in love with traveling. While in college, I decided to spend a summer semester at the University of Hamburg in 1986. It gave me the chance to brush-up on my rarely used German language skills. Of course, I chose to arrive in Europe about a month before school actually started, and spent four weeks traveling Europe on $20 a day.

My story

After I graduated and started working, the travel bug was curtailed in favor of practicality. After all, life was about making money, right? After only 4 years of working, I realized something was missing. In April of 1993, depressed and desperate, having not taken a true vacation since leaving college, I headed off to Thailand for 3 weeks. Three weeks turned into 4, and my passion for traveling was reawakened. Take a look at my novice monk indoctrination story to get a feel for one of my experiences in Thailand. My whole outlook on life brightened up! Four weeks away and I was ready to tackle anything. Within days of my return I started making plans to take 6 months off of work and see the world. I was sure that 6 months away would put me in touch with my life's true purpose, with what I was meant to do.

In 1994, I spent 2 months in India and 4 months traveling Africa overland east to west, from Nairobi, Kenya to Bamako, Mali. For many years I believed that the original purpose of the trip – to discover my true passion – had been unsuccessful. When I got home, I went straight back to my previous job. To some degree, I was more lost those first few months after getting home than I had been before leaving. Looking back however, I realize that I did indeed find what moves me in life. It just took me a while to recognize it.

I traveled here and there on short trips for the next 10 years, including an awesome Galapagos adventure in 2001. Then in 2004, I went on the Sun and Moon Tour, a 7 1/2 month adventure in Europe. It was supposed to be a year long, but I've learned that 6 months is about my travel limit before exhaustion sets in. Unfortunately, the second half was supposed to be in Australia and Asia, which got passed up on. Someday I will continue...

All told, I've spent more than 2 years living and traveling outside of the U.S. I've been to 5 continents and more than 40 countries. There is still a lot I'd like to see and do both around the world and right here at home. I'm sure it will all happen... in time.