Maybe it’s because I have the city’s skyline permanently etched on my arm, but hardly a day goes by where I don’t think about my time spent studying abroad in Prague, Czech Republic. Checking out new restaurants, getting lost down side streets, and finding the perfect spots to sit in public parks were daily activities I embarked on with excitement.

There’s just something about exploration and the process of discovering new things that fuels a part of my being. I itch for it on a daily basis, and I often walk down memory lane for the sole reason of recalling what it’s like to feel that sense of adventure I experienced so strongly overseas.

The excitement of exploration stayed with me while I was abroad because I knew there was an expiration date fast approaching that would require me to leave. I had four months to cram as much sight-seeing and activities into my schedule as I could before my visa expired and I needed to head back to the States.

Now however, I’m living in a place without an expiration date. There’s no reason to take every second I can to explore the city. I’m working full-time now. I have bills to pay. I have student loans to cry over.

I’m here indefinitely, and that knowledge often pushes my sense of adventure aside.

But every so often, a weekend day will come around where the desire for exploration reawakens in me, and I remember that you shouldn’t need an expiration date to fuel the traveler’s fire I believe is in all of us.

And that’s what this weekend was. Coffee shop hopping. Abandoned building picture-taking. Organ playing. Wine drinking.

Weekends are meant for exploring, and Syracuse reminded me that it has just what I need to keep that sense of adventure in me as long as I’m willing to go out and find it.

Weekend Exploration 7/1/2017