As he pulls an empty suitcase out of his closet, a smile stretches across Gavin Stevens’ face. He can’t wait to escape the small city of Portage to see and experience new things.

Gavin is a freshman at Portage Northern and loves to travel. Out of the few different countries he’s travelled to, Ireland was by far his favorite. While he was there for 5 days he visited Kilmainham Gaol, Temple Bar district, Phoenix Park, the irish coast, and the 12th century castle ruins. Gavin really enjoyed being there due to the fact that the people were very friendly. When I asked his Mom, Trisha, about why she brought Gavin on this trip she said “I took Gavin along with me on this trip to have a greater appreciation for different cultures and ways of life in different parts of the world”.

When asked what his favorite thing is about travelling, he said, “The best part about travelling is to be able to experience each individual culture and the people that live in the country.” However, when asked his least favorite thing about he said “Just the time and effort it takes to get to the destination”.

One of Gavin’s favorite memories is touring the 11th century Welsh Castle in Wales. He said “The castle is in Holyhead Wales near the coast and it is always a cool place to visit when visiting the country”. Gavin said his favorite thing about it was how intriguing the history was, as well as the artifacts there. When I asked one of Gavins friends, Kyle Schmitt who had also been on the trip what it was like to visit there he said “ As I stood on the stone walls on that cool July day looking out into the sea I couldn’t help but think how lucky I was to experience an archetype of European architecture”.

Gavin would like to travel to Germany next because he’s interested in the culture and he has recently been learning how to speak German.