Why traveling sucks

Aistė | Travel | March 23, 2010

One of my students showed me a wonderful travel blog. German couple travels together with their son and daughter. They write all about their travels and places they have visited as well as experiences that can be useful for other travelers.

I found one blog article called “Why travel?” that made me think about my own traveling experiences. About pros and cons. Oh yes! Traveling has it’s cons. It is easy to talk about pros because it’s so obvious. So I would like to discus some of the cons. Moreover, I bet while sitting in an office for a third day in a row, when your boss is all over you, it should be much more comforting to read about traveling cons than about one more sunny and windy day in the beach. Right?

So traveling is not only about new places, interesting people and amazing experiences. It is also about knowing yourself. While traveling human being exits his comfort zone. He leaves his tidy, neat and familiar area and enters the path of surprise. And surprise situations require non standard decisions. Then you find something in yourself that you have never expected to be there. Usually these findings are positive but sometimes they can be very negative… for example, suddenly you realize that you’re not so brave to stare in the eye of the armed Mexican policeman as you were in your own country…or…you realize that while you discuss some issues with an unfriendly neighbor your  negotiation skills run out very quickly as well as your English and the only reasonable argument that is left is your middle finger.

Traveling is not only about knowing yourself, but also the development of new skills and getting rid of old habits. When you decide to leave your home for travel (and I’m not talking about 4* AI hotel in Egypt for a week or two) you have to realize that you will not see all of these people that you are used to spend time with for a LONG time. You have to deal with the idea that all barmen in your favorite club will forget your name TOO quickly. You have to understand that all these 69 friends of yours that swear to write you WILL NOT write, and only 3 of them will scribe some news about home once in a while.

Not to mention all the uncertainty issues when you don’t know where you’re gonna sleep tomorrow. Will you find the next job soon and how long do you have till your money runs out… and etc.

Thus, if you think of traveling, reason about these things – not everyone can except and deal with that.

Well, I have to finish my breakfast in the terrace. I’ll end my morning coffee-drinking-and-whale-watching-session and go to enjoy another sunny and windy day.