by Amy Huang

Created on: September 22, 2007   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

My mum always tells me that I am one of those people, even if you take me anywhere foreign, I'd always survive and make my way home eventually. I have always been an independent and a curious person, and grew up wanting to know everything there is to know about the world, and so began my passion for travelling.

My first major travel was with the university. I specifically chose to study International Studies so that I could study overseas as part of the degree for a year. I believe this to be different to simply just travelling for a year, as I wanted to know what it is like to actually live in a foreign country, and not just to see it from a tourist's perspective. In 2003, after having studied German for four semesters, I hopped on the plane and headed to Deutschland.

Little did I know, this trip is the start of many affairs I developed with travelling later in my life.

I based myself in Saarbruecken, a city central-west of Germany on the border to France. It wasn't a well known city, but I grew to love it. The city was particular interesting as it had been half German and half French in its past, with a bilingual university. I especially loved the history associated with it as well as the different architecture that reflects those stories.

The good thing about being a student was that you get at least 3 months of holidays a year. As much as I loved my studies, I was also looking forward to the European summer holidays during August and September so that I can put my backpack on and explore.

Europe is a particularly easy continent to be travelling solo in. The train and bus network in and out of each country were fast and reliable, and I loved the fact that you can fly for about an hour or two and be in a completely different country. What I found about Europe is, although the European Union now unified the economy and currency, each country still had their own identities and traditions, and they are proud of it. There was so much history and culture to be learnt you cannot simply just have been to one of the countries to say you have been to Europe. As I crossed border after border, in and out of east and western Europe, the hidden travel bug in me flourished and never wanted to stop. I made a promise to myself (and the bug) that I will go somewhere new once a year to experience the unknown.

Having now graduated from uni and faced with real life, struggling between work and family, my little promise took me away to New Zealand, Vietnam, Malaysia and parts of the

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