My name is Sean, a screenwriter and aspiring film director, born in September, 1971.  I currently live in my home town of Sydney Australia, after several years in Los Angeles, pursuing my career goals and tracking down film locations.  I've wanted to start a blog for a while now, but couldn't decide on a theme to tie it together... until a recent holiday I took in Europe - with my Mum. 

It started as an idea my Mum had over a year ago - "I'd love to take a cruise in the Mediterranean".  After some discussion, I offered to go with her, unless she found someone else.  Having never been on a cruise before, it seemed the Mediterranean Sea was an ideal region to explore aboard a ship.  We set sail from Venice, Italy, and arrived in Athens, Greece, ten days later.  From there, we flew to Rome, rented a car and drove to Florence, then Lake Como, Salzburg, Vienna, Prague, and finally, Munich.  The entire trip took just over three weeks.  It was an adventure in many ways, and my first cruise was a memorable one.  Although I've been traveling most of my life, it'd been a while since I'd explored Europe, so this trip reminded me how special that part of the world is.  It was also a wonderful journey to share with my Mum.

Travel is an experience that can transform us in incredible ways - by seeing, hearing and feeling a place and its people, our perceptions and beliefs are challenged and often, changed forever.  But such dramatic change can be difficult, and so we have to be brave, as well as curious.  Travel can be expensive, too, but as many would attest, travel is essential.  

I was fortunate to get started early on.  As a child, my family moved frequently.  Every two to four years, we’d move to a new city, along with a new school, and new friends.  We started in Brisbane, moved to Wellington, New Zealand, then back to Melbourne, Australia.  When I was almost ten, we returned to Sydney, before moving to Hong Kong when I was 14.  We lived there for five years.

Moving to Hong Kong was a difficult transition for me.  I’d started High School in Sydney and made close friends in the first two years.  Starting over in a totally new city, unlike Sydney in every way, was tough.  I missed my friends and hated my new school.  I didn’t understand the mixture of accents my teachers and classmates spoke with, the weather was grey and oppressive, the curriculum was hard and there was no grass to run on, just concrete and stairs – lots of stairs.  But, Hong Kong grew on me.  

My younger brother and I started at Island School in January 1986, and it was a defining experience for both of us.  The opportunities it presented were many, and we gradually adjusted to this weird mix of Asian and Western culture, along with the privileged lifestyle of expatriate children.  My brother, who is two years younger than I, settled in fairly quickly, but I took a year to feel good about the place.  I grew to love Island School and my new friends there, all of whom were in a similar situation – from some other part of the Commonwealth, such as the UK, Australia, New Zealand, or another part of Asia, with expatriate parents.   The school was for English-speaking children, but that was about all we had in common – and it bred a fascinating cross-cultural mix of teenagers, all dealing with normal teenage problems in the second part of the 1980s.  It was pretty darn awesome, and we all remember it dearly.

One of the best parts of living in Hong Kong was the opportunity we had, as expatriates, to travel each year as a family.  Once a year, my father was given a travel allowance for going home to see family, but my parents felt it was better to spend that money on travel to other parts of the world - places that would be much harder to get to if we had been living in Australia.  So, each summer, when we were on school holidays, we took a trip somewhere.  They were amazing adventures that opened our eyes to the world and reminded us how lucky we were to be able to travel.  It fueled my curiosity about other cultures and my desire to tell stories about it, before the world became as connected as it is today, because of the internet and new technology.  Today, it’s easier to share an idea and feel like you’re connected with the world from your own home, but it simply can’t compare to the real experience of travel.  And it never will.

So, this blog is about my travel experiences, both recent and past.  It is also about the lessons I've learned - about the world, and myself - along the way.  I will also share stories and opinions on subjects I’m passionate about, such as movies – how and where they were made – and the people who made them. Wherever possible, I will illustrate these stories with my own photos and video.  I hope you find my observations interesting and perhaps illuminating - or at least entertaining! 

I hope you enjoy the stories and discussions to follow.  Please comment if you wish, but keep comments relevant to the topic and respectful toward others - you never know who might read them.  The internet has given us a way to connect with almost anyone, so it is an opportunity to teach and inspire others – and that is what this blog is about.

Sean Francis Ellis