Caught the Travel Bug in 2018 - What Inspired Me to Travel

I went to Hungary and Serbia in August of 2018 at 15 years old without my parents and came back with a travel addiction.

You might be asking yourself something along the lines of “what?” which is expected so let me explain…

In May 2018 I was recruited and made the Alberta Team Handball Federation's 15U girl’s development team. Alongside 13 teammates, a parent chaperone, and our coach, Ireland, I travelled for a training camp and exhibition games to Belgrade, Serbia for 10 days in August 2018. The development program was ranging in 3 teams of girls ranging from 12-18 years old. It was craziness, but also so much fun!

I remember our door didn't lock. It was 4 single beds per small room and as a room of 4 girls we threw two Tide Pods in our hotel room's filled bathtub and washed our clothes. The goldfish crackers we brought over became almost like a currency amongst us on the team. I peed in a hole in the ground at the Hungary-Serbia border crossing. Oh there's so much more I could tell you...later though.

Anyway...

About a month before the team trip to Serbia I searched for videos about Serbia on YouTube and as one does I went down a YouTube travel rabbit hole. I came across YouTubers such as 'Bald and Bankrupt', and 'Drew Binsky', and my personal favourites 'Kara and Nate.' They all collectively got me really excited to be travelling outside of North America for the first time!

Although we spent most of the 10 days playing and practicing indoor team handball (in a gym that felt like 100 degrees), I really tried to focus on taking in the city, the people, and learn from the experience. Serbia truly is so different to Canada and it has a rich history that I never really got the chance to learn about in school.

There were two days where the chaperones and coaches planned activities for us to do after our morning practices. One day, we taxied to a mall and walked down a big pedestrian boulevard. The other day we ended up doing this history/historical building tour somewhere in the city and then in the afternoon we spent it at this big man-made lake within the city. At the time, I really didn't appreciate the city history tour and had wished our chaperone had chosen a different activity for us to do. That has since changed.

I'm more than very grateful for the experience, because it truly changed the way I thought about the world as a whole. Being a 15-year-old sheltered white Canadian girl and seeing a senior Serbian lady begging for money on the street while missing her legs from the knees down and missing fingers from the Kosovo Serbian war - this is what truly changed my perspective of the world. To this day, almost 7 years later, I still can vividly picture her in my head and flooded back with the emotions I had that day. It's moments like that that make travel so impactful on a person's life.

Once I got home from Hungary and Serbia I was super excited for any and all future trips. I honestly had such a hard time waiting the couple of months until our team went to South Korea and Japan in November of that same year. Once again, I binge watched as many YouTube videos as I could about Japan. Since then, I've aspired to watch as many travel documentaries and YouTube videos as I possibly can.

During my time with the Alberta Team Handball Federation I travelled around 3 continents in total, majority being with the same 11 girls. Here is where we went:

North America - Canada & United States of America

Europe - Hungary & Serbia, Sweden & Denmark

Asia - South Korea & Japan

For the Sweden and Denmark trip in July 2019, I took the chance and started to record and put together a video recap of the trip for the first time ever. The quality sucked but it was well worth it. My teammates told me although they complained about how annoying me recording all the time was, they are so grateful and love that they have a way to remember the trip. That became my first YouTube video ever.

I attempted to do so again, a video recap I mean, with the last trip before Covid hit, the North American Cup in Chicago, USA in February 2020. I distinctly remember sitting in the Chicago O'Hare airport watching a news article report flash along the bottom of the screen about the detection of the first few cases of Covid in Chicago. Little did I know that it wouldn't be for 3 years and 4 months until the next time I stepped foot on a plane again in July 2023.

Sadly, Covid really put an end to my travelling, as it did for all of us. The summer of 2020, the Alberta Team Handball Federation's Elite U18 Girl's team was supposed to go back to Europe for the 3rd summer in a row for tournaments in Spain and either Portugal or Italy. However, the trip got cancelled due to Covid.

The one positive about Covid? It gave me time to binge-watch even more travel documentaries and YouTube content - something that would later inspire me to start my own travel journey online.

Covid may have put a pause on my travels, but it only made my wanderlust stronger. Since the world reopening, I've been lucky enough to tick off three more countries, each one reminding me why I fell in love with travel in the first place. And now, as I sit in my apartment in Barcelona, having moved across the world from Edmonton, Canada, I realize that first trip to Serbia wasn't just a travel experience - it was the spark that led me here. And in so many ways, this adventure is only just the beginning.

The Current Travel YouTubers I'm Obsessed With and Recommend:

Kara & Nate

Yes Theory

Johnny Harris

The Sweden and Denmark Travel Vlog

Click to watch the very first attempt at 16 year old me editing and putting together a trip recap of my Alberta Team Handball Federation Team playing in the Partille Cup and Dronninglund Cup.

Personal Note: I fell in love with Sweden and Denmark. This is still one of my all-time favourite trips :)