Welcome to the slightly more talkative side of Quills & Crossings.
The ebooks might take you through a destination from beginning to end, but there are far too many places, stories and completely unnecessary travel detours in the world to squeeze them all between two covers.
So, this is where everything else lives.
The Quills & Crossings Travel Journal is a collection of destination stories, travel inspiration, unusual places, ridiculously ambitious road trips, bits of history and folklore, and the occasional opinion about places I think deserve far more attention than they're getting.
Basically, if it makes me want to open a map and start planning something, there's a good chance it'll end up here.
Travel With a Little More Story
I'm Maisie — travel designer, adventure lover and the person behind Quills & Crossings.
I love a beautiful beach and a ridiculous mountain view as much as the next person, but I've never been particularly good at simply looking at a place and moving on.
I want to know why it's there.
Who lived there?
What happened?
What ridiculous legend has somehow survived for 600 years?
Is that castle actually haunted, or did someone hear a pipe creaking in 1847 and we've all just gone along with it ever since?
And, equally importantly, is there somewhere nearby to get a decent lunch?
That's the kind of travelling I love.
Not necessarily racing around ticking attractions off a list, but actually getting curious about where you are.
Because sometimes the best part of a destination isn't the famous landmark everyone came to photograph. It's the strange little village you stopped in on the way, the story somebody told you, the road you weren't supposed to take or the place you only discovered because you got slightly lost.
So, What Will You Find Here?
A bit of everything, if I'm being completely truthful.
We'll wander through countries and cities, along coastlines and across mountains. There'll be road trips, wildlife, islands, castles, myths, food, unusual experiences and plenty of places that deserve their own pin on the map.
Some posts will help you answer the big questions, like where should I actually go in Africa?
Others might convince you to forget the obvious road trip and drive across America on Route 50 instead.
And some will simply introduce you to somewhere you hadn't even considered until five minutes ago — which is potentially dangerous if, like me, your travel wish list is already getting slightly out of control.
There won't be endless lists of "10 Things You MUST Do Before You Leave."
Travel doesn't really work like that.
Two people can visit exactly the same place and come home talking about completely different things.
That's what makes it interesting.
Follow the Map and See Where We End Up
You don't need to have your next trip planned.
You don't even need to know where you want to go.
Have a wander through the journal, follow whatever catches your attention and see where you end up.
Maybe you'll find the destination for your next big adventure.
Maybe you'll discover a road trip you hadn't heard of.
Maybe you'll fall slightly in love with a country you've never visited.
Or maybe you'll just lose twenty minutes reading about Scottish folklore when you were supposed to be doing something productive.
I'm certainly not judging.
There is an enormous world out there, and I don't think we're supposed to experience it through a checklist.
We're supposed to collect the stories too.
Where stories lead, adventure follows.
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