“Travelling is the only expense that will empty your pocket and fill your soul.”- Me (I know it’s deep right?)
Anyone can turn on the TV and watch documentaries about new places and experience the adventure through someone else on a screen. Anyone can watch that one show where the host gets paid to go stay in luxury hotels and tell you how good it is. And anyone can go on the Instagram page of that one jet-setter friend. Anyone can be told that the best food in Thailand comes from the street vendors or that beer is cheaper than water in Prague. But what if you were the one trying out a new hotel? What if you were that one jet-setter friend everyone has? What if you were the one who comes home to tell your friends that beer is cheaper than water in Prague? See? You CAN be the one that you watch. Plus there is an entirely different type of satisfaction in actually learning these things yourself rather than hearing about it from someone else.
There’s a whole other world of food out there for you try!
Along your journey you’ll always make new friends in new places, and more often than not you’ll learn that you have a lot in common with new friends in new places. And the more friends you make, the more couches you have to crash on during your travels. (As long as you return the favor when all your new friends to come see your city.)
Travelling, or as I like to call it- bull***t detox, is good for your mental health because it gives you a chance to focus on you. Imagine just waking up and thinking; What do I want to eat tonight? What would I like to do today? Where would I like to go today?
New experiences open up your world view, make you more adventurous and just an overall cooler person. Whether it’s something as simple as trying a new food or as drastic as eating a grilled scorpion in a Bangkok Market for the first time, these are the types of experiences that help you discover more and more about who you are as a person. So are you more of a ‘let me see if I can run the length of the Great Wall of China’ type of person or ‘I’m gonna eat a scorpion on a stick’ type of person?
Travelling is a breeding ground for new experiences which make great stories that you can tell at your next dinner party or to that person you’re trying to chat up at the bar. Casually mentioning that one time you bungee jumped off of a bridge in Zimbabwe is bound to grab the person that’s listening right?
Let’s face it, travelling is not always fun and games because things can go wrong. Say you just got to your hotel in Cape Town and get turned away from your hotel because you booked a room starting the following day and not the day you arrived and they’re full for the night? Shit happens, we’re human it’s OK. But what are you going to do? Stressful situations like this allow you to challenge yourself and force you to be quick on your feet and figure out the best solution for yourself- and fast. How you approach and solve these kinds of problems will help you solve problems later on in your life because they give you experience in problem solving under pressure.
Think of all the new drinking games you can learn and then teach to your friends at home.
When you first step foot into a new place, you begin to care less and less about what you’re wearing, what kind of phone you have or how fancy your hotel is because the only thing that matters is the adventure you’re beginning and how much fun you’re going to have.
Whether you jumped on Via Rail’s $150 summer pass and embarked on an across-Canada trip or you decided to drop a grand on a trip to Spain, you will get your money’s worth and then some. The adventures you’re about to have, the people you’re about to meet and the new places you’re going to see will ultimately become priceless because you can’t put a price on an adventure.
Whether you and a group of your friends or you and your significant other decide to take a trip together, your relationship will ultimately be strengthened. You will find yourselves working together to figure out where the nearest rail station is or which direction your hotel is after a night on the town. Together you’ll get lost, laugh and learn new things and whether or not you drift apart from that person(s), those are still moments that you will share for the rest of your lives.
If you’ve had a bad week at work or just broke up with a longtime partner, travelling is the best way to get away from your troubles. You’re removing yourself from your usual environment and putting yourself in a new one. More often than not, this will give you a chance to relax, reflect and unwind from your troubles.
There are so many other ways in which travel opens your eyes. Take my personal experience for example; the first time I went to Athens I was 14 years old, and yes I had learned in school about how the mountains had kept Athens safe from invaders. And yes, I had read about how the Parthenon was one of the oldest withstanding structures in the world. But to seeing it in person was a whole other experience in itself. Everything I had learned in school came flooding back to me and everything just began to click. Why? Because yes, I had heard this before and I didn’t care much about it, but after seeing it with my own eyes, everything clicked and all those facts came to life right in front of me. It was just a matter of putting together the knowledge and the visual. Let’s just say that I had no problem answering test questions about Athens in my history class after the trip.
There is something about being in a new place that is so relaxing. For starters, in new places no one is expecting anything from you, no friends forcing you into plans that you don’t want to do in the first place, no boss calling you up and telling you that you need to come into work, no professors emailing you about a change in the deadline for your thesis. Everything is entirely on your own agenda, at your own leisure and at your own discretion.
Guys just think about it! There are mountains, beaches, ancient ruins, new food, friends and adventures all out there just waiting for you to experience. If you have the chance to travel somewhere new, even a nearby town or city, go for it. Because if you think about it-
Worst Case Scenario: you get away from your troubles for a little bit.
Best Case Scenario: You have the adventure of a lifetime!
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