Cristina Matasaru

Trying to come up with a subject for my 1st *real* post was quite a challenge! So many things on my mind, so many ideas, but really – how many of them are worthy for my 1st official post? After much consideration, I decided to attempt to scratch the surface of one of my most favorite subjects, which is also one of my hobbies: traveling!

My husband and I like to travel and we try to do it as much as we can. No words can describe the feeling that I get as soon as I get in the car or board a plane knowing that we’re going away… it’s like instant relaxation! I feel good just thinking about it! Whether it’s for a day, a weekend or 3 weeks, whether we’re going 50 miles away or 6,000 miles away, it’s pretty much the same to me: I love it all! There is one exception though: traveling back home to Romania to see my family beats everything by far. That is the absolute best.

This year we’ve been blessed to be able to go to a few far away places – like Greece, Romania, San Francisco, Canada, but also a few places closer to home (Portland, OR) – like Seattle and Cannon Beach. The advantage of living in Portland is that there are a lot of beautiful places close by, perfect for day trips or even half a day trips, like Mt. Hood, Lake Trillium, The Dalles and many others, so we pretty much try to go somewhere every weekend. Of course, all this traveling takes all our vacation time (+ some unpaid days :p), but we wouldn’t have it any other way.

When ever we travel we try to keep our costs low: we stay with friends where possible and when we need to book a hotel, we search for the best possible deal. I always say that I don’t go somewhere to spend time at the hotel, in fact I try to spend as little time as possible at the hotel, so as long as it’s a decent/clean place, it works for me. As far as shopping goes, I don’t do much of that when I travel, because usually the time is so short and I want to see the place and leave with great memories and good pictures, not just a new pair of shoes. I do insist on one thing, though: where ever I go, I have to buy a fridge magnet. That way, when I’m at home, I can look at my fridge and see all the places I’ve been to and it somehow makes me happy!

There are a lot of places I want to go visit someday but if I could go back to one place I’ve already seen, it would – without a doubt – be Paris. I’ve only been there once and it was a very short stay (22 hours). Anyone that has been there would know that 22 hours is far from being enough, there’s just so much to see!!! I absolutely loved Paris, it almost feels like people breathe a different air over there, it’s just magical… It’s definitely the most romantic place I’ve ever seen, although of course I was in the right company to feel that way, too! We don’t have any plans to go back for now, but I am definitely keeping my fingers crossed!

I always like to hear about other people’s traveling experiences, so if you want to share something or recommend a good place to visit, I encourage you to do it!