Why Travelling Is The Worst Part Of Travelling
Travelling is something a lot of people dream about whilst wearing rose tinted glasses. They invision themselves visiting all these beautiful, picturesque cities every day without a care in the world and having the time of their lives. Whilst travelling is eye opening, life changing and the best experience you will ever have, there are a lot of things involved that people seem to overlook or not think about.
Firstly, if you have expectations of a city through what you've seen in photos or heard about from friends, then it's probably not going to live up to your expectation OR be anything like you imagined (in a good or bad way). Obviously all the photos you see of famous cities are taken on their best days and probably edited to get rid of all the crowds and only the absolute best photo would be chosen. They never give a true insight or perception of a city (which would of course be impossible).
Secondly, I don't think anyone that hasn't been to (for example) Paris or Berlin, realise what huge, spread out cities they are and how far it is from one famous site to another. We all just imagine getting there and that every thing is within walking distance, very close by, even down the same street as one another. In reality, it can be quite difficult trying to see everything in one city because getting to and from each site can be a challenge. Public transport in most major cities is available but is also in a different language making them difficult to understand, taxi's in most cities will cost you more than your university fees and walking will be ok for some cities but you won't get to see nearly as much as you would have hoped to. Hiring bikes is a great way to get around and see everything and they are available to hire in a few of the major cities. I would strongly suggest taking advantage of them when possible because it's a great, fairly cheap way to see a lot in a short amount of time.
And lastly, no one seems to think about the time between seeing the amazing cities: the actual travelling (getting from A to B). The long bus trips, the tiresome train rides, the long waits at the airports, the costs of the flying, driving and everything in between. Compared to Australia, Europe is amazingly convenient to travel to different countries and offers so many options to do so. That doesn't mean however, that it's always easy to get to your next destination.
I love to travel but sometimes I really hate travelling. One of the reasons pre-planned trips like Contiki are so great, is because all your accommodation AND transportation is included. This means that you don't have to get yourself from city to city, because believe me it can be a nightmare. Not only do most of the buses or trains take hours and hours, they also usually leave either really early in the morning or the middle of the night, making your experience a little less fun. You lose whole days just getting to the places you want to see and although most of the cities are worth the wait, there's only so much of it you can take. If you live the "travel life" for a few months, there are a few things you start to miss: privacy, continuity, home cooked meals, being able to drive and getting a pay check every week.
Whilst travelling allows you to see parts of the world and have experiences that most people will only ever dream about, be prepared for hours of walking whilst lugging your baggage with you, hundreds of long bus trips where you're dying to get out and breath some fresh air, countless train journeys where you'll have to sit and watch the world go by (they are rarely scenic routes) and excruciating delays at airports, lost suitcases, old men falling asleep on your shoulder, screaming children kicking you in the back, less than desirable leg room and not much sleep.
If you're planning your own transport between your dream destinations, also be prepared that it might not be as simple or as easy as jumping on a bus. It might be a dodgy bus that drops you in the middle of nowhere to find your own way to the train station without google maps because you don't have any internet and without the ability to ask for directions because you don't speak the native tongue. You might eventually find the train station after hours of walking in the wrong direction just to find out that you've missed your train and have to wait six hours for the next one and after all that it doesn't even get you close to the hotel you booked so you then have to pray a taxi drives by you before it gets dark because believe me, it's nothing like the New York films where you just raise your hand and jump in a taxi. I've been stranded at a random train station in the middle of nowhere in France with no phone to call a taxi and nothing but French people who hate English speaking tourists around me with a half an hour window to get to a hotel before its reception closes.
Sometimes you'll book trains and buses but finding the actual stations is the biggest mission you feel like you've ever faced, and sometimes you'll get on these trains and they won't announce what station they're stopping in or they'll do it in a different language so you just have to hope for the best or try and stay awake to figure out when to get off. Sometimes your bus might make a pit stop and the toilets might just be holes in the ground. Sometimes you'll stop in random little countries with their own currencies so that you can't actually buy any food because they don't accept your money. Sometimes you'll get grumpy and extremely unhelpful drivers that also make you fear for your life. Sometimes you get so frustrated and stressed out that you're never going to make it to your next hotel in time to check in and have a place to sleep that you want to cry. Sometimes you question why you ever even bothered leaving the comfort of your own home...
But then sometimes things work out in your favour that restore your faith in the world. Sometimes you have train rides with big glass windows that drive past picturesque country sides and mountains and beautiful towns. Sometimes you meet beautiful, helpful strangers that give you directions and even if you don't quite understand them, you are beyond grateful that there's at least one foreign person that doesn't absolutely hate you and your presence. Sometimes you get lucky and taxi's actually pick you up and you don't have to sell your left kidney to pay for the ride. Sometimes you get on an overnight bus and the seats recline and have TV's in the head rests that play films and music and it's the best thing thats happened to you all week. Sometimes you just enjoy the down time and reflect on your travels. Sometimes you don't want to smash your head against the window and beg for someone to let you out.
Essentially, travelling has it's ups and downs and getting from A to B is never as simple as you would ever have imagined. Although the actual travelling can be a horrible part of travel, it can also be, not that bad. At the end of the day, no matter how many hours you feel like you've wasted sitting on public transport, pacing airports, twiddling your thumbs at train stations and waiting in the freezing cold for your bus to pull up- the magical thing is that you get to experience new cities and places and people and food, every single day, and I think that all of that is worth it.
I love to travel but sometimes I really hate travelling. One of the reasons pre-planned trips like Contiki are so great, is because all your accommodation AND transportation is included. This means that you don't have to get yourself from city to city, because believe me it can be a nightmare. Not only do most of the buses or trains take hours and hours, they also usually leave either really early in the morning or the middle of the night, making your experience a little less fun. You lose whole days just getting to the places you want to see and although most of the cities are worth the wait, there's only so much of it you can take. If you live the "travel life" for a few months, there are a few things you start to miss: privacy, continuity, home cooked meals, being able to drive and getting a pay check every week.
Whilst travelling allows you to see parts of the world and have experiences that most people will only ever dream about, be prepared for hours of walking whilst lugging your baggage with you, hundreds of long bus trips where you're dying to get out and breath some fresh air, countless train journeys where you'll have to sit and watch the world go by (they are rarely scenic routes) and excruciating delays at airports, lost suitcases, old men falling asleep on your shoulder, screaming children kicking you in the back, less than desirable leg room and not much sleep.
If you're planning your own transport between your dream destinations, also be prepared that it might not be as simple or as easy as jumping on a bus. It might be a dodgy bus that drops you in the middle of nowhere to find your own way to the train station without google maps because you don't have any internet and without the ability to ask for directions because you don't speak the native tongue. You might eventually find the train station after hours of walking in the wrong direction just to find out that you've missed your train and have to wait six hours for the next one and after all that it doesn't even get you close to the hotel you booked so you then have to pray a taxi drives by you before it gets dark because believe me, it's nothing like the New York films where you just raise your hand and jump in a taxi. I've been stranded at a random train station in the middle of nowhere in France with no phone to call a taxi and nothing but French people who hate English speaking tourists around me with a half an hour window to get to a hotel before its reception closes.
Sometimes you'll book trains and buses but finding the actual stations is the biggest mission you feel like you've ever faced, and sometimes you'll get on these trains and they won't announce what station they're stopping in or they'll do it in a different language so you just have to hope for the best or try and stay awake to figure out when to get off. Sometimes your bus might make a pit stop and the toilets might just be holes in the ground. Sometimes you'll stop in random little countries with their own currencies so that you can't actually buy any food because they don't accept your money. Sometimes you'll get grumpy and extremely unhelpful drivers that also make you fear for your life. Sometimes you get so frustrated and stressed out that you're never going to make it to your next hotel in time to check in and have a place to sleep that you want to cry. Sometimes you question why you ever even bothered leaving the comfort of your own home...
But then sometimes things work out in your favour that restore your faith in the world. Sometimes you have train rides with big glass windows that drive past picturesque country sides and mountains and beautiful towns. Sometimes you meet beautiful, helpful strangers that give you directions and even if you don't quite understand them, you are beyond grateful that there's at least one foreign person that doesn't absolutely hate you and your presence. Sometimes you get lucky and taxi's actually pick you up and you don't have to sell your left kidney to pay for the ride. Sometimes you get on an overnight bus and the seats recline and have TV's in the head rests that play films and music and it's the best thing thats happened to you all week. Sometimes you just enjoy the down time and reflect on your travels. Sometimes you don't want to smash your head against the window and beg for someone to let you out.
Essentially, travelling has it's ups and downs and getting from A to B is never as simple as you would ever have imagined. Although the actual travelling can be a horrible part of travel, it can also be, not that bad. At the end of the day, no matter how many hours you feel like you've wasted sitting on public transport, pacing airports, twiddling your thumbs at train stations and waiting in the freezing cold for your bus to pull up- the magical thing is that you get to experience new cities and places and people and food, every single day, and I think that all of that is worth it.
Tags:
General Travel
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