Travelling will teach you a lot of things. It’ll teach you about the world, about yourself, and how to appreciate every little thing. Travelling forms us as a person and helps us grow. It’ll teach you some things, that nothing else can teach you.
1. You learn to sleep anywhere
Literally. It doesn’t matter if it’s the airport floor, a bench, a noisy hostel with snoring roommates or a sidewalk. Try go on a 10 hour hike or trip, sit next to a screaming baby for a 14 hour flight, or work for 12 hours without break.
Sometimes travelling can be exhausting. Sometimes you might not even have a place to sleep, and you might need to settle for the sidewalk or a bench. If you’re tired enough or doesn’t have a choice, you can sleep anywhere.
Rooms like this is what you get used to sleeping in. Here I stayed with a local family in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam (in the middle of nowhere)
2. Trying new food (almost) without hesitation
This is one of the best parts about travelling. Trying new and different food, that you could never try at home. I admit, sometimes it can and will be disgusting. But it’s part of the journey.
In the moment it might not be fun to eat intestines, snake soup or fried beetles. But I can assure you it’ll make the best stories in the future. And if the locals eat it, it can be that bad. Right?
Yes, that is a snake soup with small pieces of snake skin – which is the best part according to the local Vietnamese! (I was not a fan)
3. Finding WiFi no matter what
I like to think of this as my special gift. I can find free WiFi anywhere. Even in the middle of the jungle in Costa Rica. But it occurred to me that it’s the many years of travelling that helped me.
If you’re backpacking around the world, you need WiFi as often as possible. So you can send a message to your parents letting them know, that you’re okay. Or upload a picture to your Instagram (psst, my instagram is @camillamalm).
4. Calculating valutas
This is something you need to be able to do when travelling. If you want to have any hope of discussing the price on the Souk (market) in Morocco, then you need to know how much you’re actually paying.
If calculating in your head is not your strong suit, I recommend XE Currency Converter, which you can download as an app. It even gives you the possibility to have your currencies offline, and shows you multiple currencies at the same time! I really couldn’t live without it.
5. Finding cheap flights
Travelling is freaking expensive. So every traveller (of course) wants to save money where it’s possible. This means finding cheap hostels and flights. The flights are often the most expensive part of the travel, and I refuse to pay more than necessary. That’s why I now know all the tricks to finding cheap flights.
Screenshot from Kayak. This is how Kayak’s Explore tool looks like – amazing right?
6. Being dirty is possible to live with
Most (if not every) backpacker is gonna agree with me on this. You will never be as dirty as you are when travelling. Sometimes you just might not have time or access to cleanliness. And it’s okay.
You learn to live with your dirty feed, greasy hair and dirty clothes. It’s all a part of travelling. You of course clean up when possible, but you’ve learned to live with being dirty.
7. Valuing your own country so much more
Of course, this depends on where you’re from and where you travel to. But if you travel through the countries of Africa or the jungles in Asia, you’ll be exposed to a lot of poverty. In many countries they don’t receive much (if any) support from the government.
Haven grown up in Europe, and Denmark none of the less, I can’t help but feeling a bit lucky. I grew up in one of the richest countries in the world, and travelling really makes me wonder how much different my life would be if I hadn’t.
The best thing is that even when travelling through poor areas of the world, everyone still seems so happy. And that makes me happy. It doesn’t matter where you grow up, or where you live, as long as you’re happy.
8. Travel fever and wanderlust are real diseases
For real. That uncontrollable urge to travel is awful. I probably think about travelling 80% of the time. I just wanna travel all the time. So yes, I would really say that they’re real diseases. The only treatment is to travel. But I warn you – it’s an expensive treatment!
9. You learn to be alone
You’ll never be as lonely and social as when you travel. When you first arrive in a new town or at a new hostel, you might not meet people right away. Or maybe you need to be unsocial for a while.
When you’re travelling you learn how to go to a dinner alone, go to the movies or go to activities, like the beach or a boat trip. And it’s all okay. When travelling you really learn to enjoy your own company. I think it’s an important thing to learn, and it will be help you mature as a person.
Sometimes you can feel like you’re all alone in the world
10. Enjoying every single moment
You know the saying “Live every day to the fullest”? Or at least something like that. That’s how I live when I travel. I really try to implement it in my everyday life, but it just becomes too.. everyday, you know? But when travelling, I enjoy every single moment, every experience and even the bad ones. They will make really good stories one day.
I really fully enjoy life when travelling, and I think to myself at least once a day “I’m so lucky to be here, I’m really enjoying it”. No bullshit, I really do. I get so happy when I travel, so I make sure to enjoy it all. Appreciate that you got the opportunity. Not everyone is this lucky.
Remember to always be happy and enjoy what life brings
Is there something in particular that travel has taught you? Leave a comment below, I would love to hear it! 🙂