I’ve been home for a couple of weeks now and as great as it’s been to sleep in my own bed, have my own pillow and see people I actually know again, I’m missing my travel life!
I think when you’re in your 20’s and you have no commitments, travel is just such an exciting thing to do.
It changes the way you see the world. If you don’t travel when you’re young, it becomes less desirable when you get older and then you get married and have kids so in turn have to wait a few more years to jump from one country to the next.
It’s so much easier than you think as well! The hardest part is getting the courage (and money) to book those flights.
Once the flights are booked, you’re much more inclined to save as you know you 100% have something to save for. It’s not just a ‘maybe’ in your mind that you can save money for ‘later on’
I know that if I hadn’t won flights around the world through a Facebook Competition I’d most likely still be at home planning my trip for 2016. I always wanted to be sure I had the money before I booked anything. Believe me though, once those flights were booked I saved 10 times harder than I would have if I hadn’t planned anything! And if you’re like me, you’ll “never have enough money” so just go and do it!
I was lucky on my trip that nothing went terribly wrong. I didn’t loose any of my luggage, all my flights were pretty much on time, no hostel forgot about my booking and I didn’t get anything stolen.
However, stuff like this does happen but sometimes the best things come from shitty experiences. My Sailing trip I did in Croatia, it poured down with rain pretty much most of the time. I learned not to book a sailing trip when it’s coming into the colder months and also not to leave my cabin window open when it rains as you’re then stuck with smelly carpet for a week.
However I appreciated the nicer days so much more.
I always believe that everything happens for a reason though. Even if at the time it doesn’t feel like it.
Maybe your suitcase got lost so you could re-vamp your whole wardrobe that insurance paid for. Maybe the hotel lost your booking and you end up at a hostel you’d never have booked but end up having the time of your life with 5 new travellers and making tons of memories instead.
When you travel, you always have to turn the negatives into a positive.
I appreciate what I have back home so much more too. When you see a family sleeping on the street and a pregnant woman begging for money you can’t help but think how lucky you are back home to live in a warm home and have clean clothes. Even the way our country is run I appreciate
We have ACC (Accident compensation) which some countries don’t even have. Which basically means if you’re injuried you get some payment while you recover from your salary and sometimes you can get free medical care.
If you don’t have a job, we have probably a ‘too generous’ welfare system. You get assistance if you lose your job, you have help with saving for retirement and if your family earn under a certain amount you get subsidies for child care and housing costs.
Travelling puts you out of your comfort zone as well. I’d already been pretty independent before I travelled solo but back home I’m not really the type of person who just goes and sits down with a group of strangers to make friends. I remember my first night in San Francisco I freaked out because there was one group of people at my hostel who were all sitting and drinking together who looked like they had been friends for weeks. Everyone else was out on a pub crawl and I felt like I’d missed the chance to meet anyone. So I just sat in a corner looking at facebook on my phone.
Very sad I know!
By the end of my travels, I was sitting down with random groups of people without a care, inviting someone I’d literally just met to go and have dinner with me and doing tours with people I’d met in my airport shuttle.
If you’re ever worried about not making any friends while travelling, I highly recommend staying in hostel dorms. If you hate sharing a room with randoms, some hostels have private rooms which are more expensive but you still get the whole ‘atmosphere’ of a hostel – which is walking tours, comedy nights, pub crawls etc… and that’s where you make friends!
I even met people in transit. I was always talking to someone on the plane or the subway. When people know you’re travelling they always want to be on your position! And if they’re locals they always have the best advice.
Another good reason to travel – You realise that while how people may live around the world is different to how you do, we’re all very similar. We listen to the same music, we laugh at the same things, we have similar morals. We’re all just people trying to live happy, fulfilling lives!
ThePassportPrincess 