Hi – I’m Helen,the passport-wielder of Destination:>Differentville and, by day, I’m a journalist who mostly writes about healthy stuff. A while ago as part of my day job I had to write a magazine article about befriending your fears. This was the start of that article…
“What would you do with your life if you know you couldn’t fail? Start a new business; find a new love, move to your dream home…. my answer might surprise you; I’d jump on a plane to Taiwan so I could eat ice cream out of a bowl shaped like a toilet in a poop-themed café. This would be my first stop on my world tour of all things strange (and the award-winning, money-spinning travel blog that goes with it). It’s what I’d truly love to do, it wouldn’t even take much to pack up and leave – I could afford a year off, I have no kids, no pets – but what’s holding me back is fear. What happens if the blog fails and when I get back no-one employs me ever again and I starve or lose my home.”
I wrote that back in October 2015 and it truly is what I’d love to do with my life. And then, in June this year (2017), a strange alignment of fates meant I got to go to that toilet restaurant in Taipei completely unplanned. I ate the poop ice cream (and so many more exciting things) and as I did it, I thought what the heck – I’m going to start that blog. Okay, so I wasn’t quite brave enough to quit my day job to do it, and we’ll see about the award-winning/money-spinning side of things, but yay, I’m here.
Of course, if toilet-based food isn’t really your thing you might be wondering what else to expect on here. Well, the tagline gives it away – Quirky Sights. Fun Food and Drink. Unusual Things To Do. I like to say it’s a sign that finds all the things you didn’t know you wanted to do – yet. The job of Destination>Differentville is to highlight the slightly quirky places you might find in a town or city – they probably aren’t the sole reason why you’d get on a plane to that place, but they’ll definitely make some of the more unique memories from your trip.
It might be single destination like a bar, cafe, temple, shop or sightseeing stop that has something a bit different about it, or it might be a quirky artist, food, person or animal that somewhere is famed for, It could be something else completely odd that peaks my interest – there’s a Lego story I’m researching that fits that bill. Or it might just be something fun, a new idea that I think deserves attention or a new travel trend. I’ll be honest, even I’m not completely sure where it’s going just yet! So, why not sign up and come with me on my tour of the world’s peculiar places, sights and things and frankly, we’ll just see what happens.
And if there’s anywhere you think I should mention, drop me a line in the comments below…
