When I was a small child I SAW a real live dragon and for a very long time that was my earliest memory.

That memory was as real as the sky and trees around me. We were on a bridge, driving over a creek and I looked down and saw him – and he saw me. It was amazing and magical – and fantasy? – who knows!

That sense of magic and innocence is quickly lost as we move out of childhood – well before we become even young adults.
Life becomes hard work – for some more than others. Some of us find it hard to connect to the joy and magic in life – even before we reach adulthood.

I’ve always been a girl to embrace fantasy – it is my great escape from life. An avid fiction reader and movie buff – what better way to retreat from the world and live and breathe adventure through other people’s stories and escapades.

As a woman turning 50 this year, with children from 18 to 29 who are beginning to move on with their own lives and not depending so much on their parents – this upcoming travel could be a way to connect with that lost sense of wonder in the world.

You can’t get back the innocence – but I can nurture that inner child, connect in new ways with my beautiful husband and consider what more I would like to do with my life.

Hopefully, I’ll reconnect with my own creativity – something missing for a long time in my life, lose some shyness and engage more with people – shouldn’t be hard to do when living in a country where I don’t speak the language!

I’ll really have to make some effort to get to know people in their comfort zone – not in mine.