Let me please introduce myself. Blog #1

Hello friend

This is the first of my Mike53onthemove travel blogs, but rather than talk about a past, present or future trip, I thought I would begin by introducing myself to you.

So who am I? I'll tell you who I am not: I am not a 30-something, free-spirited backpacker (I sometimes wish I was, though) who has jacked in the rat race to bum around the world. My 30s were last century. I am also not someone who travels business class and stays in 5* luxury resorts. I occasionally stay in budget hotels, but only if there's no other choice locally. I am a 3 and 4* type of traveller. I spent more than two decades as a health professional before becoming an author, freelance writer, photographer. I am now more or less a man of leisure, who likes nothing better than to get out and about, to travel, to explore and experience different cultures and customs.

Why do I want to be a travel blogger? Well, as mentioned above, this style of writing seems to incorporate my professional writing (I am the author of two published - not self-published -books), my interest in photographer, and of course travelling. I have taken a couple of travel blogging courses, which apart from showing you how to write also focused on turning your travel blogging into a money-making business. This isn't my ambition. I simply want to share my experiences, entertain and inform anyone who gives up their time to read what I write. I think my ambition here is limited to one of self development and self discovery. However, I'm guessing I'll have to develop a looser, less fussy writing style for my blogs.

Where have I travelled to? Not in any particular order, I have been to:

Norway

Sweden

Denmark 

Germany 

The Czech Republic 

Belgium 

Holland 

France

Spain

Italy

Greece

Turkey 

Egypt 

South Africa 

Morocco 

Sri Lanka 

The Maldives 

USA.

I have also seen much of England, where I am based, and bits of Scotland and Wales, and The Channel Islands. Next year I have a tour of Japan to look forward to.

What types of trips do I prefer? When my wife and I were in high-pressure jobs, and our kids were still living at home, we liked nothing better than 2-weeks by a pool in a hot climate. Now that that phase of hers and my life has passed, we prefer UK self-catering and hotel breaks, accompanied foreign tours where others do all the hard work, and where we get a chance to relax.

My future blogs will be made up of my memories of previous trips; my thoughts about planning for future trips, from deciding where to go to planning what I need to take. For me, the planning bit is where a trip begin. And of course, I will write about current trips, sharing my experiences with you.

In 'How to become a travel blogger'  courses much is made about posting your blogs on a regular basis. I'm not guaranteeing to follow this pattern, but will endeavour to post as often as I can.

After you've read my blog, please feel free to post your comments. You can also follow me and see my travel photography on Instagram as @mike53onthemove, and on Twitter as #mike53onthemove. Easy to remember, eh?

Thanks for reading this. I look forward to engaging with you in the future. My idea for Blog #2 is to write about my earliest memories of travelling. 

Cheers 

Mike.

© Mike Young 2022