Truth About Travelling

"Never regret a single moment of your journey. If it wasn't your destination it was preparation" - Unknown 

Today I just wanted to share a few truths about travelling. I never created this blog so I could just gloss over the bad parts and 'create' a happy my-life-is-amazing outlook because let's face it in the back of our minds we all know that is never the case.

Travellers like everyone else have lives back home to contend with as well as the problems facing them as they move from place to place. As I write this post it is 3am and I am sat on an overnight Greyhound bus down the east coast with a particully grumpy driver who has so far threatened to kick half the bus off just for existing or so it seems to be. 

You have to contend with people who don't get your lifestyle, you have to watch your budget constantly deciding which tour groups you can take, if you can afford that hostel or appartment, food shop only what you can carry, keep half an eye on your belongings at all times even when asleep. You only get a few hours sleep a night because maybe one of your room mates snores or came in a 4am from a heavy night out. Then you get people trying to dampen your experience with their negativity or know it all thoughts. 

You don't have an address for more than 2 nights at a time, you live waiting for busses, waiting for hostels, waiting for trips, worrying if you will get booked into a nice hostel or if this one will have bed bugs, be messy or have a nice atmosphere from other travellers. You get health worries that play on your mind and don't know where the nearest doctor is, or even if you need to see a doctor or pharmacist. 

You miss your family, you miss your friends, you can't FaceTime or Skype because the time zone is wrong, you wonder why friends don't contact you when they said they would. Maybe out of sight is out of mind? 

"To travel Is worth any cost of sacrifice" - Elizabeth Gilbert

And yet I still wouldn't want to go home. This experience is teaching me more about life and how little I truely need in life, who my friends are, how resilient I can be and how much (or rather little) in all fairness I actually care about the opinions of those who don't actually get to weigh in in my life because at the end of the day I am living a life I love, the life I waited 10 years to be able to live, having the experiences I never thought I would get and it feels amazing. There are bad days yes when it feels like the world is against you but I will still take those to have all the good days you get in between.

I know this post has been long so if you have got to his point and are still reading thank you for your patience. I just thought it would be good to inject a bit of understanding of the realities I have discovered and discussed with fellow travellers these last few weeks. Maybe it will help prepare you if you area thinking of travelling or broaden you if you know someone travelling.