Traveling Truly

Hey guys! If you’re looking for inspiration, positivity, travel tips, or just more mindless scrolling through a travel blog as a way to live vicariously through your phone, you have come to the right place!

My name is Dixie Smith, and I was born and raised in small town Florida. It was the kind of small town life where my family couldn’t get rid of our dial-up internet connection and get wi-fi until 2015. I’m talking one red light in our entire county. While I am extremely grateful to have grown up in the community I did, the longer I was there, my itch to go out and experience new things just grew stronger and stronger. “Wanderlust” would be an understatement.

My family liked to do Caribbean cruises (which I still love), but they were never quite satisfying enough for my travel bug. I didn’t really know why until my first real trip to another country when I was sixteen. I got to spend two weeks in inland Mexico, in the gorgeous city of San Miguel de Allende. This meant I actually got to take a little bit of time getting to know the culture, making relationships, eating incredible food, and experiencing a completely different way of doing life.

I was hooked. I returned the next year to Mexico, and have spent each year since trying to travel more and more. Every new culture I witness firsthand finds a way into my heart, and usually ends up influencing my actions and thoughts as well.

• 

Now, I live in Central Europe as a teacher and have traded flatlands and familiar places for rolling mountains and constant unknown. I love it here, though- everything from the food to the people to the landscapes and maybe even the cold weather. (We’ll find that out for sure when winter comes full-on, haha!) I wouldn’t trade where I am now for all the familiarity in the world, at least not just yet.

I believe that all culture travel, especially solo travel, should be centered around people. If I was traveling to country after country and constantly taking in sight after sight but never making a connection with anyone, what would be the point? I can look at beautiful pictures of faraway lands on the internet, but I can only make firsthand personal connections with those places by going and interacting with the people in a genuine and respectful way. Of course, this is only my own philosophy of travel, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with traveling for the sole intention of stretching your horizons and seeing new places- the world is full of beautiful things that should be appreciated!! This just never quite does the trick for me.If you want to read my tips for making personal connections while traveling, head over to Authentic Travel: Making Cultural Connections where I explain the little actions which can go a long way in making friends abroad or simply being respectful.

Thanks so much for visiting my little blog, and I hope to keep seeing you around! Comment down below what your own philosophy of travel is and let me know what you thought.

Happy Travels!