Travel, Family, and The Internet

I have been reading up on some travel blogs lately, mostly the ones that deal with Taiwan as I am going there  in about a month for a study abroad. Topics such as food, hotels, hot springs, Chinese operas, language guides etc. make for interesting reading. I felt that the ones that had family or personal experiences to be the most interesting and helpful. Hearing first hand accounts of language barriers, getting lost, and trying exotic food just gets me more excited about the trip I will take. One big thing that I have been considering since taking my Literature Appreciation class is to make a blog on my own travel experiences in Taiwan. I had never done blogging before this class but now I realize that it is an easy and fulfilling experience.

The many possibilities of nonfiction!

I was excited to think that as a part of nonfiction week I would get to talk about something I love to spend countless hours procrastinating on: travel blogs. 

I really cannot begin to describe how addicted I am to travel blogs and how much I've come to view them as actual literary pieces as we've talked about social media in English class. What I love about travel blogging is the accessibility of it. The bloggers are able to instantly share their experiences pretty much as they are happening, and the readers are able to embark on journeys with them sometimes seeing real-time pictures of places that are thousands of miles away.

Of course, there is also the literary component of them. I have noticed that the blogs that I love most are those which are crafted in a way that reels me in, through the literary elements they employ to convey how they feel about their travels to their readers. One of my favorite travel blogs is Anywhere But Home:

"How can I even describe why? Maybe it’s the look of the city – beautiful, ornate buildings crumbling in the old town, towering blocky church towers, secret courtyard gardens and grape vines hanging off every house. 

Maybe it’s the friendliness of the people I’ve met – the family who spent 15 minutes bartering with taxi drivers on my behalf at the airport, the monk who blessed me in the metro station and enlisted passers-by to translate so we could talk, the women in the market who break into smiles when I attempt Georgian, or even my adorable new roommates."

A device, for instance, that is seen being used here is anaphora, the repetition of the phrase "Maybe it's the..." The blogger uses this device to create a sense of an enumeration of the countless things that one can find in Tbilisi, Georgia to love.

Do you follow any travel blogs you think I should also check out?