How to create a truly unique journey?

First step

This is a topic for a separate note. But yes, the first step in journey creation process is the most difficult. Then it’s downhill. A bit like riding a bike.

The mechanism

After a few trips it seems to us quite simple and we tell the story of our trips in a natural way. Every journey begins with the fact that we tell ourselves the most exciting moment in it. The story should be good in our opinion, captivating and exciting. We should imagine how in a couple of years’ time we will be browsing through the photo album and we will come across this one of our journeys, about which we will tell without thinking what an incredibly good moment it was. Perhaps one of our dreams come true.

In order to create such postcard pictures, it is worth paying special attention while absorbing books, films or conversations, to places. Places known even in the text, give a lot of inspiration. Well, postcards. Over time we started to call this our future memory postcards from holidays in the future. And this is probably a good illustration of what I would like to say. By keeping to this postcard, in the next step it is worth considering what will happen later. Because, we are in some scenic place or an interesting museum, let’s say Enzo Ferrari, but what next? We won’t spend many days walking around him. And here we start with google maps in our hands to look at what places or places we have on the way there from home.

As a result of earlier preparations, we have several possibilities which are worth going through in a row. We generally start with our list of “to visit”, which we feed with current ideas, immediately after one of us says “it would be nice to see it”. Additionally, we look at such a place as:

• Wikitravel
• Wikivoyage
• Wikipedia
• tripAdvisor
• Local groups on Facebooku

And then we talk to people, usually older than us, which each time will throw a curiosity that is worth your attention, even after years, and certainly save for later.

The thematic

The other approach is thematic tourism, which in our case always gives inspiration:

• After reading Paweł Jasienica’s books about the origins of Poland, we started to visit:
  • Polish castles around Warsaw, and then wider and wider arches.
  • Teutonic castles
  • Castles in Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Sweden, etc. – Wherever we had contact with the dynasties that we know from the Polish thrones.
• After Pilipiuk’s resignation (“Eye of Gelen” series) a tour of the cities of the Hanseatic League began.
• Automotive museums – we go by all that we meet
• Museums of the Second World War
• Museums of natural history – provide a great knowledge about Europe and beyond
• Sea museums – because such wonderful things happened on the seas
• Museums of technology – what country is an invention. It’s worth it.
• Churches and their stories. Because it is always the history of local people, and this is the story of this place.
• Military monuments, such as the Riese Fortress or the Molotov Line and others. There is a lot of it on Polish lands. Abroad as well.
• Series of episodes connected with culinary tourism of Robert Makłowicz. It is worth going on a trip to taste these delicacies. And this is often not included in guides.
• Museums of the history of motorsport with interesting objects, such as race tracks. We recommend Italy in particular. There the real men started to race seriously.
• Unusual restaurants and bars – e.g. in Szczecin bar with Paszteciki Szczecińskie, Carska in Podlasie or Water Tower in Pszczyna.

All inspirations and ideas are written down in one place. We categorize and build lists of places to visit. And when the slogan “well, let’s go” comes – we already know why we want to go there. And how to control it from the tools side is a material for a note another time.