Thursday Traveler: Lynda of Live. Travel. Blog.

Every Thursday, A Dangerous Business will be shining the spotlight on a world nomad, travel blogger, armchair adventurer, or just someone really cool in the travel world. This week, the traveler is Lynda from Live. Travel. Blog. Lynda, a Melbourne native, caught the travel bug in 2006 after she embraced the power of the Internet and got talking to people from around the world. Since then, she’s traveled through 22 countries in North America, the Caribbean, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Most recently, she’s spent 14 months living abroad in the U.S. and interning at Disney World.

1. How do you define the world ‘traveler’ and why would you consider yourself one?

I think there are two types of travellers:

a) Casual Traveller:  A person that is quite content with having travelled to a few major cities to say they’ve been there and done that.

b) Passionate Traveller: A person that has a burning desire and hunger to explore everything the world has to offer. To not only go to, but beyond major tourist destinations and explore the ones less known, all the while accepting and embracing the surrounding cultures.

Am I a traveller? Hell yeah, of the passionate kind!

2. What has been your favourite travel experience thus far?

Pinpointing my favourite travel experience is almost like asking me to sacrifice my first born child and a donkey. From white-water rafting through the Austrian Alps, to seeing snow for the first time in my life on top of Jungfrau in Switzerland, to riding an elephant through the Kao Sok National Park in Thailand, to witnessing the last nighttime Space Shuttle Discovery STS-131 launch in history from only a few miles out at Cape Canaveral in Florida, it really is a tough call.

3. How about your proudest travel moment?

My proudest travel moment would have to be the completion of my 14-month live/work abroad program last year. Prior to this endeavour, I’d travelled extensively but only for three months at a time — I’d never actually lived away from home, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I left my family, friends and cat behind and moved to the other side of the world to a city where I did not know a single person or even have a clue as to where I’d be living. I felt as though I was leaving the safety of my ‘nest’ and entering into the unknown. Having successfully completed my J1 program in July of 2010, I now look back on all the friendships I made and how I grew as a person from this experience and am so proud of myself for having the balls to do such a thing.

4. Have you had any travel mishaps or bad experiences? If so, have these influenced how you view the place where they happened? Would you go back?

I wouldn’t really call them mishaps or bad experiences — it’s not like I was mugged or severely injured, but there have been the odd mishaps here and there. From slicing my hip open while snorkelling through a shipwreck on Moreton Island off the Queensland Coast and having blood gush out into the ocean one island down from where a girl was eaten by a shark the day prior, to the not-so-pleasant hole-in-the-ground toilet experience off some beaten track in Albania… but I’ll save that for another day. These sorts of things could happen anywhere, so no, I don’t let them influence how I view these places and I’d definitely go back again.

5. Name one thing you can’t travel without.

My passport.

6. Name one thing you wish you COULD travel without.

Some form of contact to the outside world… Depending on the trip it’s usually just my cell phone, but I usually lug the mini-laptop around so I can blog on the road.

7. What do you think has been the biggest thing you’ve learned while travelling (about yourself, a destination, a culture, travel itself?)

I’ve learned who I am and what I want out of life. I’ve learned that home will always be here waiting for me to come back to no matter how long I’m gone for. I’ve learned that the ocean will often separate you and some of the best friends you’ve ever made in life but if the bond is strong enough, an ocean is unable to get in the way. Lastly, I’ve learned that I just need to go against what my brain tells me is the right thing to do and just go for it — no hesitation!

8. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

Orlando, Florida, USA. I may be biased, but interning abroad there for 14 months of my life at the happiest place on earth, Disney World, really was the best time of my life. The lifestyle I had while there, the friends, the job, it was all like a dream come true. If visa sponsorship for foreigners wanting to work in the U.S. wasn’t so hard to attain, I’d move there in a heartbeat. Anyone want to sponsor me?

9. Name one place you’d like to see or one experience you’d like to have before you die.

Ah! Just one? I can’t! I’d like to experience a white Christmas in New York City, I want to walk the Great Wall of China and I want to watch the sun rise over Machu Picchu.

10. If there was one thing you wish somebody would have told you before you started travelling, what would it be?

To have started travelling earlier!

Visit Lynda’s blog: Live. Travel. Blog.
Follow Lynda on Twitter: @lynnie11
“Like” Lynda on Facebook: Live. Travel. Blog.

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Are you a travel blogger who has something to say on these topics? Do you know of somebody really interesting in the travel universe that you’d like to see interviewed? Speak up! The Thursday Traveler needs some interview subjects.

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