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[travelynx]

My first "solo" travel... with random people.

Being a book worm has its own perks and I savoured the fruit of my weirdly-inspired academic excellence at the age of 11 years old, in 1996. My beloved teachers signed me to a general knowledge contest on the last grade of elementary school, and by the grace of Quetzalcoatl, Athena and Thot, I managed to be a finalist and win a week-long trip to Mexico City (along with a bunch of kids of my state). The prize included to meet the president, but to be honest, that was not even interesting for me, it kind of came with the "package" and was unavoidable.

As I said before, I liked Mexico City because of my multiple trips with my mom, I loved the good food and the city buildings, so the trip for me was similar to my regular vacations... But in fact, it was my first time to travel without any supervision from my parents (or any other people I knew before). However, I´ve always been very open to the "unknown", and back then, I didn´t mind much who I was going with and I wasn´t expecting much, but to my surprise the whole thing turned out to be a great experience.

All the nerdy and good hearted bunch of kids that I went with were friendly and all the places we visited were spectacular. We had planned activities back to back for the whole week, and I was barely able to sleep and have a thought for myself, and I think I only called back home once in the whole week (I will check this later with my mom, but I´m pretty sure I was a very detached child).

The week went away through a whirlwind of places: La Secretaría de Educación Pública, el Palacio de Gobierno, el Zoológico de Chapultepec, el Campo Marte, el Heroico Colegio Militar, Teotihuacán archaeological site, a fancy dinner with the president (Ernesto Zedillo back in the day), a bunch of other places I barely remember and a farewell party at the end of the week with all the smart boys and girls in the huge hotel we all were staying (easily around 400 children). One of the things I remember the most was talking with some military men, as we were having lunch with them in the Campo Marte (a military base), asking them about their schedules and regular life. Not a common thing to do.

Now that I think of all of it, it was a little bit surreal, and it marked my life for good. Making a quick search, I found that nowadays the prize for the same knowledge contest in Mexico (Olimpiada del Conocimiento Infantil) is a boring and lame "scholarship" of $1,000.00 MX pesos (or $50 USD) every month for 3 years and only if they maintain their excellent notes. A total bullsh*t I say. That´s not a decent price for being the most badass book worm of the whole elementary school, and I say they need to change it back to this amazing trip with great food, guided (educative) tours and fancy hotel.

#bookworm #elementaryschool #throwbackstories #travelynx

In this photo: Edinburgh, Scotland.

This was the first city out of México that I ventured to live in. The only thing that I knew about it was the things I had read in some history books about the Jacobite rebellions, their national hero William Wallace and a romantic and fictional novel called "Outlander". For this first adventure, I got a scholarship (a good one!) from the goverment that allowed me to apply -and finish- a master´s degree in the University of Edinburgh (with merit!). Also, it gave me the opportunity to mingle with people from other countries and make everlasting friendships. All the things they say about europeans being cold is a lie, I must tell you. Just give them enough time (or alcohol) and they will chill enough to crack some jokes and relax. #Edinburgh #scotland

A bad quality picture of my dearest elementary school teachers, with my fancy school uniform. #elementaryschool #nerdgirl

Some years later with my teacher Emma, the kindest soul in the whole school.

Some of my Edinburgh Super Friends. Love you guys.

[travelynx]

The beginning. More or less.

Somehow, I always felt like a traveler. My inspiration for travel came with books, specially, with a wonderful tale full of adventures and life lessons... “Le petit prince” was, in a way, like a bible to me. So, at age 6, it was the first book I read, and ever since, I’ve been reading it every now and then, finding new and deeper meaning to every part of the story. Other books helped too, but this was my major inspiration.

My second source of inspiration came from my own family, with my father, my older brother, godfather and godmother as additional sources of motivation and curiosity for the outside world: who wouldn’t think of exotic adventures when looking at a picture of your own father climbing to the top of a snowny volcano? Well, I sure was smitten to take action. 

And now, after some years of wandering around this world, I’m ready to tell my own story. Ladies, gentleman and lizards, these are my tales. I hope you enjoy them, as much as I did. 

The picture below came as a first because it’s the older archaeological site I’ve ever set foot into, and its one of the least visited, protected or ever mentioned in archaeology books. Barely advertised, I only knew of its existence because I was literally, in the nearest village and it was on the way back to Yerevan. 

Here with the Caucausus mountains on the back, watching over the Karahunj “Observatory”, near the village of Sisian in Armenia. 04/April/2022. This is an important archaelogical site dated back to the Middle Bronze Age, but its purpose was not clear: either the upstanding rocks with mysterious holes in them were part of a wall, part of a burial site or an ancient astronomical observatory. Maybe it was everything... but not at the same time? Well, in this picture, I took advantage of the view and used it for my very own purposes.