World explorer

“Vanessa’s going to see it all” - that’s what my friends wrote about me in our senior year yearbook and I think they’ve captured my personality quite well with that one sentence. I’ve always been a very inquisitive person and traveling manages to quell my need for seeing and doing new exiting things quite well, at least for a little bit. 

The countries I've been to so far

Growing up, I’ve always been very lucky that my parents were able to afford traveling to different countries every year, so going to foreign places is a thing I’ve always been fortunate enough to do. When I was finally old enough to start exploring the world on my own, I had already been to Italy - multiple times, Greece, Germany, Tunisia and Turkey - 10 times. I mostly don’t remember the trips to Italy because I was simply too young, but I still have fond memories of the rest of these trips.

Me in Trieste, Italy at age 2

  My first trip without my parents was to Exeter, England at age 14, where I went again the year after that first time. Since then I’ve been to Oregon on a student exchange, New York City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco and more. It wasn’t just my own initiative taking me to new places though. My class went to Ireland, Paris, Brussels and Munich and while these trips were a little too tightly scheduled for my liking - I prefer to just wander around and discover things

like that - they were still amazing.

Oregon 2011

San Francisco 2012

But all these trips aside, there’s not a single one I’ve loved more than my trip to Australia this February. Going to a country that is so far away on my own is one of the experiences I’ll remember forever and I can honestly say that it’ll probably be my favorite country ever - or maybe at least until I find an even better place.
 

               Sydney, 2015

I’ve learned a lot of things about people and different cultures that way and I think I wouldn’t be the person I am today without my travel experiences.