Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life – and travel – leaves marks on you. Most of the time, those marks – on your body or on your heart – are beautiful. Often, though, they hurt.
Anthony Bourdain
1. You’ll start to unfollow everyone who posts travel photos on Instagram
You have to find some way to suppress the unhealthy amount of travel envy you’ll feel rising to the surface every time you see a new Eiffel tower pic. To make it worst, you’ll stop posting on your own social media as nothing will seem as awesome as the Mediterranean sailing snaps and skydiving selfies that you previously had on your feed.
2. The excuse “I’m on holiday!” will no longer be valid
From eating three chocolate croissants for breakfast to drinking mojitos at 10 in the morning, suddenly things that seemed very normal whilst travelling will become a lot harder to justify in normal life.
3. Your hometown will start to seem pretty dull
When compared to the quaint cobblestones towns, the bustling cities and the incredible historical monuments you’ve explored on your travels, your hometown might not seem quite as cool as you once thought it was.
4. You’ll suddenly have to be aware of what time and day it is
The initial alarm that will wake you up at 6am to go to work will be very confronting and confusing. Also, having to keep track of which day of the week it is will frankly just get annoying.
5. The novelty of eating out will be diminished
After eating out a thousand times throughout your travels, the idea of going out for dinner once you are back home will suddenly feel a lot less exciting. Plus, you’ll no longer experience the thrill of guessing what you are ordering as you’ll understand what everything on the menu is.
7. Your travel stories won’t be as interesting to people back home
Unlike the hours you could spend exchanging travel stories with strangers at a hostel, you’ll find the same stories will have your friends from home quickly losing interest when you bring up “that one time in Helsinki” for the fourth time…
8. Shopping malls will feel VERY mundane
After spending your days bartering at bustling market places and purchasing handmade knickknacks from roadside vendors, battling to find a park and spending two hours trying to find a table at a food court will not be your idea of a fun Saturday.
9. You will have to become financially responsible
Once you’ve realized you’ve spent all your money on travelling, you’ll have to start thinking about how you are going to pay for life. No more dollars dropped on excessive amounts of gelato or paragliding experiences. Instead you’ll be paying for fuel, electricity, rent and other things that make you yawn.
10. Birthday parties will become a little depressing
What used to be a gathering of all your nearest and dearest will now be a reminder of the fact that getting all the friends you’ve made in different corners of the world in the same place at the same time is a near impossible task.
11. You’ll miss meeting new people all the time
As much as you love your friends from home, you’ll miss the excitement of meeting new people every day from all walks of life. You’ll also miss the mirage of languages being spoken and the fun of guessing where people are from.
12. Routine will suck more than it ever has before
Cooking, cleaning and paying bills have never been enjoyable tasks, but after being responsibility-free for so long, mundane task suddenly suck EVEN MORE.
13. No one will able to quite understand the experience you’ve just had
No matter how much you try to explain it, people just won’t get it. That will get frustrating.
13. You’ll feel like a hoarder
Once you’ve been on the road living out of a backpack or a suitcase, you’ll realize how little you actually need to get by. When you return home, you return home to all your stuff, and you’ll wonder why you ever needed any of it.
15. Your heart will never remain in one place again
Instead, you’ll have little pieces of it scattered across the globe, each piece held by the incredible people that have come into your life all across the world.
16. It will be impossible to find complete contentedness with ordinary life
You’ll now spend all your time thinking, dreaming and planning your next trip. You will struggle to focus on anything else. You’ll constantly crave new adventures. Consistency will quickly wear away at you, and reality will become harder to face than ever.
But is travelling worth it?
YES x a million.
For more travel inspiration, read these posts next:
- HOW TO: Incorporate your travels into your home decor
- The Importance of Being Culturally Educated When Travelling
- The HONEST TRUTH on how I became a Full-time Travel Blogger
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