WELCOME TO HANDZAROUND!
October 2, 2016
by Hanna & Zach
50 countries coming together as a trip around the world – this is how many places were on Hanna’s ‘list to visit’ when she was 12! We can’t believe that this is soon becoming reality and we are lucky enough to be able to travel. Since we can now look at it more realistically, the number of the countries has been adjusted and it’s now looking more like 25 rather than 50 :)
Hanna at 8 years old in front of the pyramids in Egypt
There are now less than two weeks till we depart London and begin our adventure around the world. Of all the feelings there are, anticipation is the winner! We shift from delusional optimism to sinister pessimism – from thinking that we will be able to travel for the next 10 years and live a completely chilled life, to envisioning that we are gonna die from shi**ing ourselves sideways trying all the different street food! We have made a deal between us to stay positive no matter the situation!
We are approaching this trip from two very different upbringings. We have had different interests and views as kids, however now as we are growing and bringing our experiences together, we are developing a sense of joint perspective of the world around and a shared idea for the travels.
Hanna at 7 years old with her brother on a jeep safari in Turkey
Hanna was always really upset when she was a teenager because she thought travelling to be so expensive. It also seemed hundreds of years away before she’d be old enough to travel alone, without parents.
Ever since Zach was a little kid, he always wanted to see the un-watered-down version of the cultures that make up his country. Especially being from Melbourne – ‘the cultural city of Aus’.
So here we are, exactly a month away before we set off to our first destination - Nepal!
HandZaround website & Journal are a way for us to keep in touch with our friends & family and everyone who is interested in travelling as a lifestyle – not just a holiday. Obviously we will be doing ‘the touristy stuff’ but we also have bigger aims, which you can read more about here.
We thought we wouldn’t like this to be another travel tip or travel hack website about ‘the top 10 do’s and don’ts’ of travelling. Instead, we would like to explore the world in our way and talk about it subjectively because general speaking often leads to creating stereotypes and to be honest, everyone travels in their own unique way.
These days, it is so easy to be ‘a lounge-room traveller’ and explore the world from the comfort of your laptop. There is an endless supply of travel stories, blogs, short films and photography. Although we are using the same tools, we would much prefer you to think for yourself rather than giving you ready-to-use presumptions.
It seems to us that in today’s world there is such pressure on the aesthetics and on making everything look beautiful and perfect, smiley and happy. We believe that it doesn’t have to be like that. In our opinion, not everything needs to look this way. This view creates such limitations to the array of emotions that are expressed in our daily lives.
Zach in his early 20s fishing in Port Phillip Bay
When travelling, we won’t suddenly stop living our daily life and enter the dreamland – we’re aware that we’ll still get upset, tired and things won’t go as planned. Instead of turning our daily lives into something that they’re not – a perfect, happy fairy tale, why not make the everyday-ness attractive?
The only thing needed to be able to see the things in an amazing way is a certain way of perceiving things. We think we are the boss of our own taste and how we perceive things depends solely on us. So our website will not be all about beautiful landscapes and cute children that can be seen whilst travelling.
We hope that nonetheless, you will find our travels interesting and stay tuned for the next post! You can also check what sort of things we'll be writing about by looking at our categories.
Thanks for giving us your time!
H&Z
