There’s a feeling I get when I travel somewhere far from the real world. It’s unmistakable and pretty dang euphoric.
It tends to come on strong once the plane touches down and I’m walking that long path to immigration. My feet begin to dance.
You could call it an adrenaline rush or anxious anticipation, but that wouldn’t do it justice.
I like to think of it as an energy field that only reveals itself when you and the Universe are in lockstep. When you’re doing what you’re put here to do.
Now I’m no mystic. Just a quiet southern boy who can’t stop dreaming about the next big adventure.
A big night for me is scoping out airline tickets, wondering how far is “too far” for a weekender and looking up school truancy laws.
There’s just something about travel. IYKYK!
Rules of the road
In the early days, as a matter of practice I pre-trip researched the hell out of a place. The sights, the hotels, the restaurants, the tours, the hospitals, the bus routes, you name it. I fit as much as I could handle on my calendar.
And because I was a budget traveler I also studied the price of everything. I could tell you how much time and money you’d spend taking the Tube from A to B versus walking (cost/benefit analysis… it gets technical), and how paying to use the loo on the way could ruin it all. PRO TIP: BEST TO GO BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE HOTEL.
As you can imagine, I was the life of the party at the hostel bar. Even the Germans wanted nothing to do with me.
But somewhere down the line all that calculating gave way to the only real adventurous quality of travel: its spontaneity.
New rules printed!
“When you set off for a foreign land, book a safe place to lay your head and remember when your return flight takes off. Otherwise, all pages stay blank!”
Embrace shiny object syndrome
The best part of travel quickly became all the chance encounters.
My guiding stars.
Certainly that’s the people you meet at the hostel bar (Guten Tag, Germans!), on the bus, or at the cafe you only found because you got lost and stumbled upon it.
They’ve got some intel on a __________ (insert noun) that you absolutely must try. Down the street or across a border or two. You coming?
It could be a shoddy advertisement you spy on a wall in some quaint mercado in Buenos Aires. ¡Clases de tango gratis! 7pm!
Or a street food walking tour that turns into a great night out with locals.
If you’re over-scheduled from the word go, you’re most definitely under-available for anything spontaneous to arise. No ‘yes’ cards in your back pocket.
Worse yet, you’re unlikely to even notice it in the first place. Such havoc does a buzzing mind wreak on the senses.
Go slow! Stay tuned in.
Does the preacher practice?
So can these 45-year-old bones still keep up with this free-form, nomadic ethos?
Ehh! They can hang pretty well!
Nowadays I’d call myself a half-bougie traveler. I still do hostel stays often but build in a boutique guesthouse or Hilton night every few days for a nice hot shower and good night’s sleep.
I may have added a rule or two to my book, but they’re lightly scribbled in somewhere upside down and backwards.
Whether solo traveling or with my family, I try to stay true to my roots and leave the whats and hows open to chance.
The Universe operates in real time after all and is fantastically spontaneous. I want to stay in sync with that. Just a feeling I get!