Travel history

I love looking back on photos of trips taken, holidays had and journeys away. Another thing I like to look at are peoples passports. I think a passport can say a lot about someone but it's also a personal history and each journey represents a trip taken for a reason whether it be for pleasure, work or otherwise.

I've been so fortunate to have travelled to many places around the world from a young age and to have had some of the most amazing and unforgettable experiences; sailing the Nile, working at the Athens Olympic games in 2004, and visiting many unspoilt beaches and villages in Greece, Turkey and The Philippines. I regularly need to present my passport as a form of identification or have it on hand so that my office can deal with the rigmarole of residence and work permit updates.

Recently, I discovered that in less than a year, my passport will expire and the thought of a clean fresh one saddens me a little as I won't be able to look back at the one I have with its crinkled frayed edges, tattered and water marked pages, and happily reminisce on all those journeys I have taken over the last ten years.

Interestingly, I was talking about this with my sister a while back who posted about her passport and travel history, which in her past life as a flight attendant, took her to far away and exciting places which filled her passport full of stamps to amazing places like Dhaka, Trivandrum and Oman, to name a few.


When I started composing this post and tracking my trips by year and date, an idea to google the words "passport tells a story" popped into my head. To my surprise, I came across this blog post by Mr Bojangles which is entitled with those exact words writing pretty much exactly the same thing about his passport.

So I decided that I would attempt, through the water marked and stained pages, to trace my steps back over the last ten years and list all the borders I have crossed and when.

5 July 2000 - Bahrain International Airport, Bahrain
9 July 2000 - London, UK
22 October 2000 - Nadi, Fiji
29 October 2000 - Melbourne, Australia

24 July 2004 - Istanbul, Turkey
10 August 2004 - Athens, Greece
28 August 2004 - Istanbul, Turkey
5 September 2004 - Melbourne, Australia

14 August 2005 - Athens, Greece
16 September 2005 - Istanbul, Turkey
26 September 2005 - Athens Airport, Greece
7 October 2005 - London, UK
16 November 2005 - Istanbul, Turkey
25 November 2005 - Cairo, Egypt
10 December 2005 - Istanbul, Turkey
12 December 2005 - London, UK

18 March 2006 - Athens, Greece
25 March 2006 - Melbourne, Australia
8 April 2006 - London, UK
5 May 2006 - Istanbul, Turkey
8 May 2006- London, UK
16 June 2006 - Amsterdam, The Netherlands
18 June 2006 - Luton, UK
6 July 2006 - Rimini, Italy
7 July 2006 - Republic of San Marino, Italy
9 July 2006 - Luton, UK
8 August 2006 - Samos, Greece
9 August 2006 - Kuşadası, Turkey
14 August 2006 - Rhodes, Greece
23 August 2006 - London, UK
15 September 2006 - Berlin, Germany
17 September 2006 - Stanstead, UK
21 September 2006 - Istanbul, Turkey
24 September 2006 - London, UK
20 October 2006 - Paris, France
15 November 2006 - New York, USA
21 November 2006 - London, UK
23 November 2006 - Istanbul, Turkey
26 November 2006 - London, UK
8 December 2006 - Melbourne, Australia

28 April 2007 - Istanbul, Turkey
14 July 2007 - Edirne, Kapıkule, Turkey
29 August 2007 - Kos, Greece
3 September 2007 - Bodrum, Turkey
19 December 2007 - Melbourne, Australia

14 August 2008 - Melbourne, Australia
27 August 2008 - Istanbul, Turkey
17 October 2008 - Lyon, France
19 October 2008 - Istanbul, Turkey

26 January 2009 - Melbourne, Australia
6 February 2009 - Singapore
15 May 2009 - London, UK

London calling

Tomorrow I will take a much needed trip away to London where I will see my friends and visit old places I once used to haunt. I have a tonne of great and happy memories of my time in London and look forward to revisiting the city.

I am so looking forward to drinking proper lattes and eating tasty fresh organic food, yummy cooked breakfasts of blueberry pancakes or fresh porridge and maybe a curry or Thai meal.

I'm looking forward to walking the streets of Notting Hill and peeking in the windows of all my favourite shops like Reiss, Topshop, GAP and Selfridges. I'm looking forward to riding the fast and frequent tube and pounding the pavement in my trainers in order to get from a to b.

There are lots of things I miss about London.

I'll fill you in on my travels when I return.

Moleskine Istanbul City Guide is here!

They have arrived! The Moleskine City Notebook series now has an Istanbul City Guide. It contains key maps and metro routes, large scale city centre maps, blank pages for jotting, archives pages with tabs so you can personalise your guide and many, many more great features!

image from amazon.com

Can't wait to get my hands on one and check it out. These would make great gifts for those visiting your city and there are City Notebooks for most major cities around the world.