Last month I travelled to Greece with a good friend. My friend is a bit of a travel novice. It was not her first trip to Europe, but it was the first time she travelled without her family. This was her first backpacking trip, and she found everything exciting, breathtaking and wonderful. She always had a look of wonder on her face.
She asked me, “Do you ever get excited by a place?” One day, in Athens. You don’t seem to be excited about being here.
The implications of her query made me think, and I realized that I envied both her and the new travellers I met on the road.
Travel is exciting and new to them. Every corner brings a new and exciting experience.
Matthew McConaughey said it best: “New travelers are the same age.” It’s actually not true. They get younger. They still have wide-eyed stares and ask you the same questions that you’ve heard a thousand times before. They want to have fun. They want to meet new people. As a group, they remain the same, even if individual backpackers come and go.
Travel is nothing new to me. Travel is my lifestyle. It’s an endless journey I take every day. Some people wake up and head to work. I get up to go to a different city. My travels don’t have a clear-cut start and end date. It’s continuous.
I’ve outgrown dorms, pub crawls and ticking off my to-do lists of top attractions. I’m tired of living in a suitcase.
There will be good times and bad days. You don’t have to travel constantly. Travel was a way to be flexible: It allowed you to live the life you want.
The desire is not a limitless wellspring. It’s a battery. Constant travelling drains this battery. Listen to your heart if this happens to you. Relax and stop. Take stock of your life and look after yourself. If you do not, if I make the same mistake as you, you will end up at a desk, wondering if and when you can get out again. That is the worst possible feeling for a nomadic person.
Travel is all I want to do. I wouldn’t trade my life for a cubicle.
It eventually does get repetitive. More trains, more beaches and waterfalls. I’ve been lost, and I’ve tried the hostel experience. I’ve seen jungles and bridges, ridden trains, and gotten drunk with people from all over the world. I have partied, slept, met thousands of people I will never see again, gone on day trips and explored many ruins.
It is now routine.
Travel can become boring when you repeat the same things over and over. Even those ‘around-the-world’ trips are not immune. Even the characters in A Map for Sat (a movie about trips around the world) complained about the feeling that “things are just another” at the end of their journey.
Has the magic of travelling left me? Has my awe for travel gone? Unfortunately, the answer to that question is yes. It has. The wonder has gone. My love of travel has not changed. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t find places around the globe that inspire and awe me. Moments in life still make me awestruck. Scuba diving in Fiji left me speechless. The rice terraces of Bali were breathtaking. One of my favourite things to do was hike the Tongariro mountain in New Zealand. Four years later, I’m still in love with the Cinque Terre.
Travelling became a way of life, but it was not a permanent adventure. It just became like everyday living.
There will be ups and downs.
That’s ok.
You can stay in the same place, recharge your batteries and then go back when you are ready to experience more of this lifestyle. To experience more wonder.
Travel, tennis or teaching- if you do enough, your routine will be established. Once it becomes routine, the wonder of it all is lost. Even though I have lost the initial feeling you get when you begin your trip, watching it on other people’s faces reminds me of how life-changing travelling can sometimes be.
It is sometimes good to take a short break, breathe, sleep and regain your energy. Sit around and be.
In two weeks, I will be itching to go back on the road, wondering why I ever got bored.