There’s a new Wanderer in town!

Nicola Arnold with her host sister Yogita

Yes. Robyn’s Wanderings is growing by one! Nicola Arnold has now been roped into writing every week about her adventures and basically anything travel related!

So you’re sick of me?! Cool. Meet Bermudian and enthusiastic traveler Nicola who will be sharing with you every Saturday. Here’s her first post:

Season’s Greetings! This is Nicola Arnold and it has been 65 days since my last travel adventure… that is, if you don’t count excursions to the local beaches and parks as being an adventure-worthy.

Living in Bermuda has its perks – as a recent graduate from the University of Guelph, Ontario, I have thoroughly enjoyed returning to Bermuda to spend my summer playing beach volleyball, walking past Johnny Barnes at Crow Lane Roundabout as he declares his love for me, and even pretending to be a tourist in Dockyard in order to sample some of the delicious rum cakes over at the Rum Cake Factory!

So who is Nicola?

My story so far is a ‘mixture’ of my family background intertwined with my travel experiences. Therefore it seems like a good idea to share these ‘ingredients’ of my life with you:

¼ cup Croatian grandparents

¼ cup British grandparents

½ cup parents from Zimbabwe

2 T. cousins in South Africa

3 T. cousins in Australia

1 pkg. of Rotary exchange in France

Whisk in some studies in Canada

4 T. summer student in Bermuda

5 oz. semester abroad in Paris

9 oz. study abroad in the French Alps

1 tsp. volunteer trip in India

Dash of travels in Japan, Greece, USA

These ingredients have led me to my path of study, encouraging my development in international education and will be the basis of my career… (yes dad, a JOB!!):

From high school at Mt. St. Agnes Academy in Bermuda to university in Canada, my ever-growing love for

France ultimately pointed me in the direction of completing a B.A. in European Studies, complete with a

Nicola in the Thar Desert in Rajasthan for our overnight camel safari... a thrilling adventure for sure

“highly recommended” study abroad for a year in the foreign language being studied (le français, bien sur).

At university, I became a Peer Helper at the Center for International Programs (CIP), so I had the joy of informing and preparing other students for studying, working & volunteering abroad.

Needless to say, I’ve been able to hone my packing skills for last-minute weekend trips, backpacking in the Indian desert on a camel safari – and learnt to be ready at a moment’s notice to dash for trains in the process.

What’s the plan now?! As I’m enjoying the mild Bermuda weather, I’m actively searching for jobs in Canada in the international education field – working with international and/or exchange students. It has been great networking with contacts both in Bermuda and Canada, while keeping my skills sharp through volunteering and getting involved in different organizations and events.

And surprise, surprise… my family and I will be travelling over the Christmas holidays to visit family and wander around Europe a bit. So far, our plans include stops in London, Rome, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Amsterdam and Paris – all in the space in 3 weeks. Sound interesting? Stay tuned for more!

“I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

Traveling on Thai public buses!

Difference good or difference bad? Frost could you explain? Because right now I am traveling down a path I have a lot of knowledge about in some areas and yet is a hell of a risk in others. So my Friday Photo of the day? Me exhausted on a Thai public bus! Open doors, along dirt roads = tired and dirty traveler!

While I could navigate my way around the world last year and thoroughly enjoyed it, now I’m back home. I kept the travel column in The Royal Gazette newspaper (every Monday so check it out!), but I’m also trying to do something new – establish myself as a freelance and travel writer.

Sometimes I don’t know what I am doing. Sometimes I am trying to do new things. Sometimes I try to approach the idea from different directions.

I like it. I enjoy it. Or, well, I wouldn’t be doing it. But it’s not easy. I have the critics and the cynics sitting on my shoulders: How can you wander Robyn when you are on a 21-square-mile island? How can you be a travel writer when you are not traveling all the time? Don’t you ever want to settle down? Don’t you want to have kids?

And the truth is: I don’t know. Is it weak to admit this today? I don’t know. But the truth is I am trying. I am trying to travel down a path that I have never been on before.

I am trying to do something I have been subconsciously working on all my life. I have wanted to travel and experience the world since I was 11-years-old and begging to go to boarding school. The “wanderlust” has never stopped. I am always curious. I want to see it all.

And now I am trying to translate this energy into what I do. But besides the cynics I have other road blocks and diversions that spring-up.

Surely if I can survive a five-day trek through Patagonia I can tackle anything?

While on the road it might have been rocks falling off the side of the Amalfi coast in Italy that closed the road. It might have been breaking-up with a boyfriend while on the trip. Now it’s tackling health insurance, pay roll tax, pensions and balance in life.

Questions loom over me. Should I spend money on upgrading? Should I go on that trip? How do I figure out how to combine my trip with travel? And how do I have a vacation?

I have confidence in myself or I wouldn’t have chosen to wander through this territory of freelance and travel writing. But that’s not to say I don’t question myself. And that’s not to say I don’t stress about things.

The other thing I am learning? The other path I am traveling? It’s down the path with people who are willing to support me. Willing to take a chance on me. And figuring out who is not.

None of this is easy and, yet, I love what I do. How do I make that work?

Take life: add one boat, a dog and New York waterways….

Gillian Outerbridge and her first solo sailing trip

We’ve all been there. How do you get away from work and the daily grind that can catch you in a trap? Well Gillian Outerbridge is one woman who refused to let her life pass without her adventure.

Granted she changed it from sailing to the islands of Greece in the Med to Greece, New York, but what she found was strength and adventure she had been looking for.

I featured her in my column today because I was and am looking for inspiration for travel! That’s why I need to hear from you! I want to feature Bermudians or those with Bermudian links to send me their photos and stories about their travel.

This could include you flying a kite in Ghana, wearing our shorts in Vietnam or reading one of our papers in the wilds of Boston, Massachusetts. Whatever it is I have created a new page for these contributions and the best one will go into my column in The Royal Gazette.

Email me your submissions at: robynswanderings@gmail.com