Great Trips and Tips Travel Blog

About

Hello TraveLovers! I just wanted to introduce myself and tell you a little bit about why I started this blog. My pen name is Karlotta, (Karla with a LOTTA something, hopefully some good travel sense). I started this blog because frankly, I love travel! Now, I have to admit that I don’t love ALL aspects of travel. I’m not very good at planning a trip and organizing the details (thankfully I have a husband who not only excels at this, but loves it as well!) You won’t see me smiling as I lug my luggage around (now you know why they call it LUG-gage!), or while running to catch a taxi or airplane. I’m not particularly fond of sitting in airports waiting for my flight, and I can honestly say that I would put “Your flight’s been delayed/cancelled” in the “Serious Dislike” category. What do I love about travel? Well, just about everything else! I love the experience of arriving at a new place for the first time, taking in the different landforms, climate, and architecture, strolling through historical and modern buildings, learning new words of a different language and hearing it spoken around me, being included in a local festival or celebration, or shopping in the local stores. I especially love trying the different foods, the wines, the sweets, and letting the new sounds engulf me. The richness of it all just tickles different corners of my brain and delights my heart! I am a TraveLover! Wherever I go, I try to make a point of noticing the common things that connect us all, expressed in many different, interesting ways. We all need to have someplace we call home, a dwelling of some sort where we let down our defenses of the day and can truly relax. We all need to nourish our bodies with food and drink, and we all need each other. Wherever we live, whatever language we speak, we all experience the whole spectrum of emotions. We find “special someones” who enrich our lives, we have families and friends, we smile, we laugh, we cry, we celebrate our lives and traditions in various ways. Everywhere on earth, we organize, we learn, we work, we plan and we play. We express our creativity with art, with music, in our different social and political systems, in our pursuit of innovations, and in our understanding of the meaning of life and death. The human species is amazingly complex and diversified, yet surprisingly similar all over the globe. I am so appreciative to have the privilege to explore. For me, being a TraveLover means keeping in mind the connections between all of us living here on our Mother Earth, while at the same time loving the diversity. It means not being threatened by new ways of doing things or words you don’t yet understand, but instead, embracing the newness and the opportunity to learn. It means seeking out the beauty in the differentness, and feeling the compassion for the humanness. And passing along this knowledge to your loved ones by example, radiating respect, acceptance and appreciation of different people and cultures. That is the TraveLover’s calling, and that my friends, is how we all can contribute positively to the evolution of our incredible human species.