Palisadian Anna Purdum Reports on Life Traveling Across the Globe for Over a Year
By ANNA PURDUM | Contributing Writer
Just over a year ago, we boarded a plane with two one-way tickets to Italy after having quit my job and securing a short-term lease for our home in Pacific Palisades. This was the spark which started us on our adventure around the world.
At the time, we didn’t know we’d be traveling to 20 countries and all seven continents. Or that we’d be nomads for over a year with just a carry-on suitcase and a backpack. We only knew that we were ready to travel, sail and explore the world.
I planned to take this time to figure out what my “pivot” would be in life. Would I change jobs, shift to consulting, teaching or permanently retiring?
Over the past year, we have explored major metropolitan cities like Buenos Aires, Sydney, Tokyo, Santiago and Paris; connected with friends in Ireland, Amsterdam, France, Italy, Portugal, London, Morocco, Türkiye and Japan; hiked rural pastures in remote Scotland, Montenegro and Argentina; trekked glaciers and majestic mountains in Patagonia, New Zealand and Peru; ridden camels in the Sahara Desert and horses in Peru; driven a campervan across New Zealand’s diverse wildlands; meandered through many small towns in France, Ireland and Peru; sailed in Greece, Uruguay and Southern Turkey; and even took a last-minute inaugural cruise to Antarctica.
Along the way, we have traced world history through famous mosques (like Hagia Sofia, which was once a Roman church, then a mosque, then a museum and now a mosque again) in Istanbul (formerly Constantinople), trampled through the Greek and Spanish Baroque ruins of Sicily, hiked the Inca trails while marveling at their mysterious archaeological feats, and even imagined ourselves living back in time in Calabria where we met my distant family relatives for the first time.
(Finding those relatives and connecting the dots is another story altogether, but suffice to say we have Google translate to thank for the conversation identifying how we were related with an assist from ancestry.com.)
The best part of the trip has been meeting interesting people and immersing ourselves in all the different cultures of the world. We have been lucky to have many friends join us for various segments of our trip.
Each visit seemed to come exactly when we needed it most. Whether we were joining a friend on their trip or reconnecting with old friends in their home country, we were surprised by how many people shared friends and friends-of-friends to contact along the way.
Sharing a meal with a new friend is the best way to memorialize a place and understand its unique personality.
Some lessons I’ve learned:
- 24/7 travel with your spouse (or anyone) is hard. Meeting up with friends to share new stories is good for a marriage and your psyche.
- Don’t get your hair colored by someone who doesn’t speak the same language. Nuanced conversations matter more than you think.
- Dinner with locals is always better than a Michelin-star restaurant alone. Exploring new beliefs (due to cultural differences) or explaining your own can reinforce or challenge an old one.
- Facebook can keep you in touch with friends and family and may even re-unite you with long lost friends in Lisbon. Keeping connected with valued friends is worthy of the time and effort.
- Saying yes to last-minute changes on your itinerary can turn out to be some of the best memories of your trip. Keeping an open mind, staying focused on the possibilities and being a persistent problem solver in a challenging situation will often produce results that far exceed your expectations.
- Comfortable beds in an Airbnb are far more important than any other amenity. Read the reviews carefully.
- A week aboard a sailboat and a two-week rental camper van have a lot in common. Learning from our earlier experiences and applying it to others is valuable and rewarding.
- Using a carry-on with wheels is actually packing more than you need. Trust me on this one.
- Everything is temporary as a nomad. If you don’t love the place you’re at, don’t worry, it will change soon.
- In this post-pandemic world, this adventure has taught me even more about remote opportunities. I can consult from anywhere, participate in virtual advisory boards as an expert and even develop potential future college course content online.
Whether I pivot to a new career, consult, teach or retire is still to be determined, but I will carry my treasured memories and learnings with me for a lifetime.
Oh, and our tenants renewed their lease through September, so until then, we will continue to travel.
Anna Purdum and her husband Jim have lived in Marquez Knolls since summer 2013.
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