It all started shortly after my birth
I was born in Colombia, and not too long after, I went on my first journey, quite a long one for being so young. It was all the way from Colombia and to Norway in Scandinavia, the day I won the lottery by being adopted to Norway. I may go deeper into my adoption story at a later point in time, but for now, let’s keep the focus on the part of travel.
My parents are travel lovers, which means that naturally, we did a lot of it. Many people believe that having a kid means that you have to stop travelling for a while until the kid gets older, not my parents. I do not even remember our first trips due to being so young when we went. As per normal we did at least two or three trips abroad every year, ranging from one to three weeks long. A lot of them were in the Canary Islands, but we also did quite a few trips around the Greek islands. When I got older me and my dad also started to do some city weekend trips to different cities around Europe. Those trips included a lot of walking and typically we went for a see-as-much-as-possible in the shortest amount of time strategy. It worked, we got to see a lot!
Going to the land of smiles
Around the year 2000, we planned a long trip, far outside of Europe, the first plan was to go somewhere in South America. Originally the plan was set for the Dominican Republic, but due to some events deeming the area unsafe, we decided to not go there in the end. Our minds were set on a long-distance destination, so we had to look elsewhere. After a little research, we ended up with Thailand as our decision, our location was a newly popular area named Phuket. Not part of the mainland, but a new destination for tourists wanting to experience the Land of Smiles. We went to the area called Kamala, and here we fell in love, so much that we ended up visiting this area once per year for many years to follow. I think I have been there fifteen times or so by now, my parents have been there almost every year since we started. Except for the time of the pandemic, of course, we did not travel much in those days, to be honest, who did?
Thailand will always be special to me because of this, and due to coming there so often, we have made bonds for life there. I practically have a little sister there, not by blood, but that does not matter. I know that I will always keep coming back to Thailand, the beautiful land of smiles. There will be many posts about Thailand here on my site, consider yourself informed.
Living in the land down under
In 2015 I was entering my last year of studies at the Norwegian Creative School, and I had the chance to study abroad. I had the options of England, Italy and Australia. One would think I would have chosen Italia, but at that time I yet had to discover my deep love for that country. At that time in my life I just wanted to get as far away from Norway as possible, go a long distance to get away. My best option was of course Australia, it is one of the furthest destinations away from Norway as I could get.
The area of my school was within Gold Coast, known better as Surfers Paradise. A bit fancy name I know, and I have to admit that it alone was the reason why I chose that location over Brisbane. I never will regret that choice, Surfers paradise was amazing, and the life there will still be remembered as one of my best years in life so far. So many new things to adapt to, yet still a familiar language, and I got my wish of getting as far away from everything else as I could. I went there with a Norwegian student group but I quickly separated from them, I did not go all the way to Australia to just hang out with Norwegians. Through doing that, I got to know a lot of people from all over the world instead. No regret.
A passion for Italy
Lately, more or less the last two or three years, I have had a mild obsession with Italy. To be honest, I am still in that phase, and I do not think it will end, because I honestly do love that country. I love it for its language, its food, its history, its people, and a lot more I yet have to discover. I study the language as mentioned in an earlier post, and I hope to learn even more about this country. So that I can upgrade myself from just being an unknowing tourist, and get deeper into the country and all that it has to offer.
You will definitely see a lot of content here from Italy, I have been to a lot of locations around Italy this year, and I already have some newer destinations planned for next year, one major hint is, Sicilia.
Allora, more adventures in my favourite country will come!
I will always search for adventure
So far I have travelled a lot, and it is not even close to stopping. I have so many more places I want to go to, so much more to see. Also, there are a lot of stories I want to share from my previous trips, I do have a lot of content stored in my Lightroom catalogue that until now has just been resting there without purpose. It is about time I put my education to use and start to produce. Okay, I had to use that wording to make it a rhyme. But yes, part of my education is within graphic design, photography and digital storytelling, all of those should be perfect pieces to aid in making this site part of my grand adventure, my journey of and through life. I hope you will follow me!
Ci vediamo!
– Owlando –
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