New Here? Excellent. Your Judgment May Be Questionable.
Welcome to Kim Goes Somewhere, a travel blog for people who are considerably more interested in the weird museum down the road than the resort everyone else is visiting.
I’m Kim. I go places.
Sometimes I travel halfway around the world. Sometimes I find something strange two hours from home. I like weird history, peculiar festivals, questionable transportation, places that make me say “Wait…people actually DO this?” and adventures that seemed perfectly reasonable when I booked them.
Things do not always go according to plan.
Actually, that may be the plan.
I’m not particularly interested in telling you about the 10 Best Things to Do in Wherever. There are approximately 47 million travel blogs willing to do that for you. I want to find the thing you didn’t know existed.
So if you prefer your travel with a little history, a little absurdity, and a reasonable chance that something will go sideways, welcome.
Pick your rabbit hole.
SO…WHAT IS THIS PLACE?
You have questions.
Why is there a travel blog called Kim Goes Somewhere? Why does Kim’s bucket list contain things normal people don’t put on bucket lists? Why is there occasionally a crocheted spider?
All excellent questions.
Start here:
This is probably the closest thing Kim Goes Somewhere has to a mission statement. Except nobody had to attend a committee meeting to write it.
KIM ACTUALLY WENT SOMEWHERE
Every once in a while, despite all evidence to the contrary, I engage in actual travel.
There are beautiful places. Ancient ruins. Tiny villages. Mountains. Beaches. Boats. Food. History. People I meet and never forget.
Of course, I am still there, so eventually something gets weird.
Current expedition:
Start at the beginning and follow along, or wander into the middle with absolutely no context. Both are surprisingly accurate representations of traveling with me.
PEOPLE DO WHAT?!
This is my favorite question.
People chase cheese down mountains. They build enormous crocheted guillotines. They dress in 16th-century clothing in Missouri heat and voluntarily spend their weekends pretending plumbing hasn’t been invented.
Human beings are fascinating.
And occasionally baffling.
I would like to investigate.
Enter here if your favorite travel question is:
THINGS DID NOT GO ACCORDING TO PLAN
There are travel bloggers who appear effortlessly elegant while gazing across Santorini in flowing linen dresses.
I am not one of those people.
I fall into things.
I get lost.
Jet lag attacks.
Plans collapse.
And once,
The Kim Goes Somewhere Starter Pack
Still not sure where to go? Fair.
There are cheese-related injuries, Renaissance Faire beheadings, Greek pirate ships, African latrines, and an alarming number of situations that began with me saying, “This seems like a good idea.”
So here are five stories that pretty much explain how things work around here.
1. Apparently My Travel Bucket List Is a Little Weird
Most bucket lists have Paris. Maybe the Maldives. Possibly a tasteful villa in Tuscany.
Mine has…other things.
This is probably the best explanation of why Kim Goes Somewhere exists and why I will happily travel an unreasonable distance to see something peculiar.
Start here if: You also have a travel list that makes other people slowly back away from you.
2. I Would Absolutely Be Killed by a Cheese
Every year in England, perfectly sensible human beings gather on an extremely steep hill and voluntarily fling themselves down it in pursuit of a wheel of cheese.
Naturally, I became fascinated.
Start here if: You hear about a centuries-old tradition involving cheese, gravity and questionable judgment and immediately want more information.
3. I Fell Into a Latrine in Uganda…and Somehow That Wasn’t the End of the Day
I have traveled to Uganda many times.
There are approximately eleven thousand beautiful, meaningful and culturally significant stories I could tell you about those trips.
We’re starting with the time I fell into a latrine.
Start here if: Your favorite travel stories begin with, “Everything was going perfectly until…”
4. Day 8: Kim Wants a Pirate Ship
Sometimes travel is about personal growth.
Sometimes it’s about experiencing another culture.
And sometimes you see a boat and immediately decide that you need a pirate ship.
Start here if: You have ever reorganized an entire day’s itinerary because you spotted something interesting in the distance.
5. Come for the Renaissance Faire. Stay for the Free Beheadings.
You don’t always have to cross an ocean to find something wonderfully strange.
Sometimes it’s practically in your backyard.
Sometimes you’re also performing in it.
And sometimes your husband builds a six-foot crocheted guillotine named Sir Slicington III.
Travel is a broad church.
Start here if: You believe “free public beheadings” is a perfectly reasonable way to advertise a family-friendly weekend activity.
Your Turn
Now you know what I’m looking for.
The strange museum nobody talks about. The bizarre local festival. The forgotten piece of history hiding behind a gas station. The train that goes somewhere ridiculous. The ferry that probably shouldn’t count as transportation. The roadside attraction that makes absolutely no sense but has somehow existed since 1957.
Tell me about it.
If there’s somewhere you think Kim needs to go, I want to hear about it.
Because there is almost certainly something weird out there that I don’t know about yet.
And frankly, that is unacceptable.