I was born and raised in a lovely town called Manhattan Beach, which resides within Los Angeles, California. I was fortunate enough to grow up with a family who loves to travel, so before the age of 10 I had already been out of the country to Mexico and Canada. I’ve also traveled within the US to Hawaii, New York, Florida, Alaska, and 24 other states that are not ~trendy~ enough to mention.
The summer of my sophomore year of high school I traveled to Israel for 6 weeks on a program with my Jewish summer camp. I also had the opportunity to visit Poland for a week beforehand to delve deep into the horrors of the Holocaust. Then a year later I traveled to Italy with EF Tours. It was a one week student travel program that I experienced with a few friends and my favorite history teachers.
These trips throughout my childhood ignited my passion for travel as an adult. When I graduated from high school my (now ex) boyfriend and I backpacked around western Europe together. In 2 months we went to Greece, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, France, and Spain. It was my first time traveling without a structured program or with my family. We paid for the whole thing ourselves and created our own itinerary. My first time backpacking and I. LOVED. IT.
When it came time for college I got into a unique first semester study abroad program in Dublin, Ireland. I lived there for 4 months and spent my week off from classes in Prague, Amsterdam, and Budapest.
I then returned to Boston, Massachusetts and studied Theater and Film Production at Northeastern University. My junior year I went on an alternative spring break trip to Israel with the Jewish Federation of Boston. Since we volunteered at various organizations, it was completely free!! That summer I left again to South Korea on a one month film study abroad program. After Korea I had a spare month before school started up again and I knew this would be the perfect opportunity to try solo backpacking for the first time. I spent 4 weeks in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand and to put it simply:
I. was. sold.
I knew this had to be my future. I decided right then and there that I would do whatever I needed to do to get back to Southeast Asia and solo backpack for longer. Since I wanted to go solo I knew it was all on me if I was going to make this happen or not.
Spoiler! I did.
The ‘ol backpack n me before my first solo trip! (Thanks mom)
I saved up all my money from working as a waitress my senior year so that when I graduated college, I was gone. I first flew to Israel for the free 10 day Birthright trip (major pro to being a Jew is you can almost always go to Israel for free). Instead of returning home with the rest of the group, I forwent the flight and stayed in Tel Aviv for Onwards: a 2 month internship program. After the program ended, I solo backpacked for 8 months all around South East Asia. I traveled to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. I would still be there today if it wasn’t for COVID-19, which made me have to fly home from Bali 🙁 My original plan was to keep traveling to India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka and then move to Australia on the working holiday visa for a year or two. Since the COVID lockdowns I have still managed to travel a bit. I went to Mexico for a few days, visited a boy in the Netherlands for a month (story on how I got in to come soon), met up with my college friends in NYC, and took a road trip to Big Sur. My current plan is to continue my Australia itinerary whenever it is safe to do so. Now I’m currently back in California patiently waiting for borders to open back up…and writing this blog to feel “productive”.
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