As this will be my first post for Backpackflags I thought it would be good to give a bit of my story, so as I share my experiences and stories in future posts, there is a bit of a background to them.

I grew up in Colorado until I was 16, at which point travelling would become the next 14 years of my life.  Until I was 16, however, my parents took me and my brother and sister on road trips through Southern Utah, Oregon, California, and even Maine. We also went to Spain and Germany when I was 13. We actually did a fair amount of travelling around the US – I drove through or visited 45 states before I was 16. When I was 16, however, I got the opportunity to play hockey in Canada and the next 14 years would be pretty crazy. I ended up paying rent in Armenia, Turkey, Russia (twice) and the UK (also twice)., and now Germany. I used these opportunities to learn languages, explore new cultures, and broaden my horizons.

This led me to buying flags for the countries I had been to. I originally only purchased flags of countries I had lived in, but then I decided, why not go big? I came across Backpackflags (yep, go ahead, roll your eyes at the sales plug there, but it is true) and started collecting flags from them. This led to more flags as I got to explore more countries. Finally, one day in London taking photos, I was with a friend (@woodsy_8) and he tagged me in his photo as Man With The Flag Bag. It had a nice ring to it, and it stuck. Since then, this has become my Instagram handle for my travel photography – an I post pictures of both the bag and the places I visit. This bag serves as a constant reminder of where I have been, how blessed I am to see new places, all my family has sacrificed for me to be where I am, and what a beautiful and diverse world we live in.

Here are a couple of the pictures taken by @woodsy_8 on the day that he branded me Man With The Flag Bag. I look forward to sharing my stories of past and current travels here with Backpackflags!

Chris