Jonesin' for a Vacation!

For the past few weeks I have really been wanting to plan a vacation.  Since June, my only real travels have been back and forth to NYC.  I would not consider these trips vacations.  I have a friend from high school who has been in New Zealand since February and following her blog is giving me nostalgia to go back.  Another friend recently left on a trip to eastern Europe and my parents are currently in Portugal.  I love to travel and see the world, though I am not a fan of flying.  With our lives in transition, it's so hard for me to not be able to plan for us to go somewhere.  In the past two weeks, I've "planned" trips to Patagonia (South America), Macchu Picchu (Peru), Ecuador and the Galapagos, and Portugal.  Just this week I looked into an "Around the World" flight (http://wikitravel.org/en/Round_the_world_flights), which is actually cheaper than our roundtrip flights to Australia and New Zealand.  When I created my trip around the world (http://www.roundtheworldflights.com/), I planned to stop in Cario, Egypt; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Singapore; Darwin, Australia; Fiji; and Hawaii.  How amazing would that trip be!!??  I know that the Australia/New Zealand trip this past winter was a big one and we can't do that all the time, but I wish I had a job that would send me (and Colin) to various places in the world for months at a time.  I should have been a travel writer.  I envy those who traveled to Thailand, Chile, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand for a year or semester during or right after college.  It would have been amazing to go to the world cup in Africa this past summer, too.

The challenge is finding the time and money to travel.  You can certainly make it happen affordably, but if you are a professional, you lose "experience" and create gaps in your resume if you want to go away for an extended period of time.  Traveling right after college is a great time to go, but it's hard to find the money when you see the debt you've acquired over the last 4, 6, or 8 years!  When you travel during "vacation time" from work, you actually get paid while you are away, but it's hard to get away for longer than 1 month (unless you are a teacher).

If any of you out there have a job offer for me to get paid to travel the world, I am all ears!!  Or, just send me some amazing vacation ideas that I could research and get excited about doing someday!  :)