15 years of travel blogging

In May 2009 I wrote my first entry in what ultimately became this blog. Here’s a look back at 15 years of travel blogging.

Before the blog

If you look at the earliest posts on this blog, they actually go back more than 15 years. 

In 2003 I went to Alaska and I brought a small book that served as a travel journal. I wrote a total of eleven entries and the book sat on a bookshelf in my house in Seattle. Later, after I started blogging, I transcribed those eleven posts and added them to the blog.

Italy 2009

When I went to Italy in May 2009, I created a blog using Blogger just for that trip. I wrote my first post from Tuscany on May 21, 2009, on a computer in the lobby of the hotel where I was staying. The other posts I wrote during that trip were from “internet spots,” which if I remember correct were the predecessor of internet cafés. I didn’t carry a laptop with me. In fact, I didn’t even take a mobile phone with me on that trip. I was still writing in a journal in addition to writing blog posts.

I struggled with European keyboards. I couldn’t figure out how to do apostrophes, so I just went with it and let “don’t” show up as “donàt,” because the a with the accent was where I expected the apostrophe to be.

I didn’t write much of anything in detail, nor did I post many photos. Those blog posts from Tuscany were pretty much just a way of saying, “Hi, today I’m in _____. And itàs hot.” 

What came next

My next trip, in 2012, was to the Nordic countries. And I decided to create an actual travel blog rather than a new separate blog for each trip. I migrated the Italy posts to this blog, so I consider those posts from Italy to be the beginning of this blog.

On that trip I brought a mobile phone and a Bluetooth keyboard, so I could blog anywhere. Later I started traveling with an actual laptop.

What comes next

This is the 405th published post on this blog. The vast majority of my posts are trip reports. I’ve come a long way since those quick check-ins from Tuscany. Perhaps too long a way. I think I tend to over-describe. I am always looking for opportunities to share the experience of traveling rather than the facts and details of where I am and what I’m doing, but I fear I’m not successful at that. 

The journey is more important than the destination, they say. Or perhaps the journey is the destination. I don’t travel in order to get where I’m going. I travel so that I can experience new things in new places.

In the next 15 years I will try to remember to tell you less about what I’m doing and show you more about what I’m experiencing. Maybe it’s a subtle distinction, or maybe it’s the difference between dull and inspiring.

Let me know what you like reading about in my blog.