Whether you are traveling in a exotic foreign place, somewhere far from home you are bound to meet new people along the way. But what of the travelers in your own hometown? Thanks to twitter, I was fortunate to meet up with some lovely travelers in Los Angeles on couple nights ago. Organized by @Magicant, we were to meet up at the Whisper Lounge Bar and Restaurant at the Grove in Los Angeles. Needless to say, I was nervous. Here I am a newcomer in the travel blogger world, I’ve only been to Europe. And I will be talking to a group of people who have traveled the world over. What would I say? Will I be able to understand what is being said and be able to join in the conversation? Luckily, I had my sister translate for me, and everyone I met was fantastic and so welcoming. All of my nervousness and worries melted away, I had the time of my life meeting them.

To be honest, to meet up with everyone just made me even more excited to travel abroad this fall. I heard tales about New Zealand, Russia, Europe, Australia. My mother who came along for the tweetup even quipped “Okay, lets go to New Zealand tomorrow, I’m packing my bags when I get home!” after hearing rave reviews on New Zealand.

When I am in my hometown, which is a mere two hours away from Los Angeles. A small town, where everyone knows your name(literally). It is hard to find friends that are just as travel obsessed as I am. There are a lot of talks about politics, work, and of course small town gossip. Rarely, Travel is the topic of the conversation. It is like being a big fish in a small pond. I even wondered to myself, “is this normal to be this travel obsessed?” I talk about travel, I live and breathe travel, I constantly have to be on the move to find some unknown destination. Eyes roll when I mention a new crazy travel plan for the future. And here I am in this Travel tweet up where travel WAS the topic of the conversation. I fit right in, and I thought to myself “it is normal to be travel obsessed!”. The whole time, we spoke of crazy travel stories, where I told my story about my England/Ireland trip. A trip where anything that could go wrong did. I told them of my bike accident in austria, the robbery in Ireland, and the story of being stuck on a plane for a mere 20 hours when the flight was only supposed to be 5 hours. I heard of crazy stories that make you go “oh man, I can relate!”.

All in all, I got to meet up with @magicant @travelswithtwo @cgtravels @abbytegnelia @miataylor @vagabond3 @purplekat99 & @travelvivant, check them out on twitter. They are amazing people. Keep an eye out for them, for they are world travelers with a zest for life!

You never know who you will meet on the road, or in your hometown. But get out there, connect via twitter, or even facebook and you will make lasting friends with the same interest as you do. I will say this, it is OKAY to be travel obsessed.

Happy Travels!