Traveling is my favorite thing on the planet. I will forgo food, fun, a cold beer, a good nights’ sleep, basically anything you could imagine to save up for a trip.

Traveling makes me fall in love with every place I go, learn so much about the world, and appreciate my roots. It makes me feel happy, overwhelmed, blessed, insignificant and small all at once. It makes my problems dwindle in size and seriousness and opens my mind to new places, people, and things. It makes me believe in magic wholeheartedly, the way I did when I was a little kid.

I had such an amazing time in Italy and such a not amazing time not in Italy that planning my next trip has been therapeutic. It’s something to look forward to and a way to celebrate my independence and strength and love for exploring this world.

I would love to go back to Italy, but I think it’s time I got in touch with my roots. My ethnicity is primarily German, and I want to gather a deeper understanding of who I am and where I come from.

So, here’s some German wanderlust for ya. It’s a huge country, so I just snagged some pictures of Cologne, it’s fourth-largest and one of its most beautiful cities.

Happy travels,

Nikki