From crawling on the cuttlefish scattered beaches in Vanuatu at 6 months old to gallivanting across Europe with my boyfriend as my only helping guide I believe that through an upbringing of worldly visits my vision of conquering the world is one step closer.
Most often it is experiences in life that are unexpected, unwanted or simply catastrophic at the time that shape us into who we are or we fight to be.
This concept also rings true for travel. Some believe that travel is all the glorious likes pictures on Instagram gets you, whereas in reality little time can be spent worrying about such trivial aspects of society. Travel is possibly the greatest education one can receive as it not only expands one’s view on the world, different races but one’s own sense of self and introspective.
For example, when travelling from Amsterdam, the city of drunken houses to the history riddled Berlin, a transport mishap seemed drastic in the moment but in reality just made for a great story. Bleary eyed and dazed in the early morning travelling from Amsterdam to Berlin was headed for disaster. I declared that the train before us was to be boarded as it ‘clearly stated’ that it was heading for Berlin. Once on this train I suggested a bottle of water and snacks would be helpful for the 6hr train ride ahead. My boyfriend, previously sceptical of my decision to board the train was now his way to fetch water. Before long the train starts moving and my heart is out of the train window in fright thinking he had missed the train. However, I was on the train to woop woop land with all four bags, Jesse’s ticket and no hope of getting the train driver to stop. Luckily phones worked and a charming conductor helped me with insight into the four trains I was to swap to and from before meeting with the train my boyfriend was on to successfully get to Berlin. Carrying three backpacks and a suitcase was a struggle to say the least for little ol’ me up and down many flights of stairs. Eventually through sweat and numerous tears at -1 temperatures we reunited and all was well.
This however was a major learning point. It taught us to never trust my gut instinct and directional skills to say the least ! But overall I realised that no matter how scary or unfamiliar the situation seems at the time you will most often than not come out of it and have a good laugh/memory along with some valuable life lessons. Many highlights of travels are things that don’t go to plan or crazy wacko people you didn’t think you’d meet, like the sock man we encountered on the way from Pompeii to Naples, which I will later discuss in another post…
Anyhow I hope this scattered blog post was engaging enough to begin, I assure you my writing will become more rounded and focused in time, I just have many jumbled thoughts to spit onto paper at this precise moment!
Adios et a bientot xo
A Travelling Proust 