Easyjet have recently launched an exciting blogging competition called the Holidays Inspiration Initiative which aims to find out what inspires bloggers to travel. If you’re on twitter you can follow the hashtag #inspiretravel to see some more great entries and keep up with the latest in the competition. London boy and snakebite lover Neil of Backpacks and Bunkbeds tagged me in his entry which you can check out here.

But, for now, check out my attempt…

Who?

I can’t quite pin down one single person who fuels my inspiration to travel but I always remember hearing stories of one of my great aunts when I was a little girl. Sadly, she died before I was born so I never got to meet her but I heard stories of how she travelled the world, despite being a single female in the middle of the 20th century when women simply didn’t do that kind of thing. My mum told me tales of how she brought back presents for her from her travels- Spanish fans and Russian dolls were amongst her favourites. My great aunt didn’t let the fact she didn’t have a husband to accompany stop her from travelling the world and seeing as much as she could and I always thought this was very brave and inspiring of her.

What?

What a horribly hard question, what drives me to travel? Is it cheating if I say absolutely everything?! I love seeing how people of other cultures live; the sights, sounds, smells, foods, traditions, the language- I love to experience it all. I absolutely love the feeling of living like a local in another country. It means you’re so much more immersed in the culture of the place and get a better picture of how they live.

 Where?

The Church on the Spilled Blood, St. Petersburg

I’ve travelled mostly throughout Europe with a few short trips to other places. Some of my favourites are Barcelona, Spain and St. Petersburg in Russia. If I had to pick I’d probably opt for St. Petersburg. I was only there for 2 days but managed to cram an incredible amount of things into that time. St. Petersburg isn’t my favourite place because of the people or the food (you have to work seriously hard to raise a smile and the food is far from wonderful); but for the history and the architecture. I saw some of the most awe inspiring architecture here. My favourite had to be The Church on the Spilled Blood. The intense, vibrant colours of the building against a perfect blue-sky backdrop was simply stunning. The amount of golf that is used for decorative purposes within Catherine’s Palace and The Church on the Spilled Blood itself is incredible. The Russians really do love their gold! I desperately want to get back to Russia sometime soon to explore more of the country.

The one place that’s top of my travel wish list at the moment is India. I’ve always been fascinated by the architecture and culture there and hope to visit within the next couple of years. It seems like such an amazingly vibrant country that I’m dying to explore!

When?

I can’t think of an exact time in my life that I can look back on and pinpoint as the moment my love affair with travel began. My amazing parents had me on my first flight when I was just 6 months old and have treated me to so many amazing travel experiences over the years. This means that there hasn’t ever been a point in my life that travel hasn’t been a part of. I’m very lucky, and very grateful, to have had all of the travel opporunities I have and I always try to remember that. Travel is a luxury that I’ve consciously made a necessity in my life; to travel is to live.

And that’s it from me for now! Here’s my nominations to keep this great competition going…

- Francesca @_travelpatch

- Tom @waegook_Tom

- Toni @toniwonitravels

- Cole & Adela @fourjandals

- Nic @Nicfreeman_