5 Things I Can't Wait For Once Travel Opens Back Up

Written May 30 (Global situations may differ than what’s depicted in blog)

What’s up voyagers! I hope everyone is doing well out there. Most of us are slowly resuming back to our normals lives but still have a bit of a journey to go with many restrictions in place. At least here in beautiful Hawai’i, local residents are resuming doing the things that they love with their friends and families. In March many of us were in quarantine and had to stay home with shopping restricted to what we needed with that added anxiety of how safe the store was. But as things loosen up, we are finding ourselves slowly returning to some semblance of a normal life. People are out more, stores and restaurants are opening back up, and we can enjoy some domestic leisure travel (with proper social distancing of course). With this gradual transition back to living life the way we miss, one can not help reminisce all the things I love and miss about travel, period.

So here are 5 things about travel that I dearly miss, & cannot wait for once I hit the road again.

1) Hit the Road

I don’t just simply mean hit the road in general. But literally hit the road, whether it’s getting in the car and driving or hitchhiking. There’s nothing more exciting (at least for me) than the “what’s next?” on a new journey. That start to a day of travel whether it’s going to the next beach town or a flight somewhere new. There is a general culmination of feelings that happens usually and only when a new journey is about to begin. The anticipation of knowing that theres a what, who, and where that awaits and you know will change you for the rest of your life.

2) Camping

I love Airbnb’s for the unique living experience you can have, Couchsurfing for that better connection with locals, and hostels to meet other travelers. But there is nothing like the freedom that camping offers if you just want to pitch a tent and create your own living experience wherever you are. I’ve camped in some of the most unique and beautiful places so far in my travels. A beach campout in Tonga, cliffside in Hawai’i, and glacier lake in New Zealand. Camping is also (more than likely to be) an affordable form of accommodation compared to other lodging options. So that time freedom that camping has given me is an element I seriously look forward to in the midst of busy traveling.

I also own a hammock which is a plus! Get yourself a hammock, you won’t regret it!

3) Meeting Locals

While I love and always look forward to meeting travelers domestic or abroad, the biggest joy I get, is having the opportunity to meet and connect with locals. One of my biggest priorities when it comes to travel, is education about my surroundings, from it’s history to the deepest routes of it’s everyday culture. And the best way to engage and truly learn is none other than connecting with a local (or locals). This is why I prefer to couchsurf in that it allows me to adapt and learn about how a life is lived in a place I am. And I’ve always found the learning experience in one day of couchsurfing could take me a week in a hostel, barely. It could be from the city of New Orleans to a small coral atoll in the Gilbert Islands (both places I’ve been to.) Reflecting on my travels, I love to look back at who I am and what I know when I first arrive at a place. And then see what I learned and how it changed me after I left.

This is why I love travel and molds me to not only be a better person and traveler, but allows me the opportunity to be a part, in changing the world for the better. By also bringing parts of the world to these places & it’s people.

“Us travelers, we are like soldiers of peace in a complex world.“
-Me

Learning a New Language

When I came into this world of nomadic travel, I innocently didn’t pay attention to some of the core reasons why I love travel. One of those things was keeping my ears open to new languages, dialects, and even accents. It’s one of those things you can’t not take in when you travel, whether you’re crossing state borders or country borders in Europe. Taking the time to listen to basic everyday words and expressions of a new language has become one of my favorite addictions and allows you to connect to a place a hundred times more.

Improve your English with a native teacher on italki today!

Locals appreciate it and will embrace you with open arms so as long as you wish to learn. Sure my Greek or Tuvaluan is rusty as sh** but hell, I have been invited into homes or social gatherings just for simply trying. Whether it’s learning a native aboriginal language in Aussie or a slavic language in Eastern Europe, I can’t wait to engage in a new language.

5) Take it all in

There is nothing more simple than just taking it all in. Whether it’s sitting on a sailboat watching the sun set over the Pacific, having a cold brew on a hot New Zealand summer day, or kicking back with a Frappe in a Greek cafe. Travel can get complicated with budgeting money appropriately, dealing with immigration, being safe and healthy and other things. And we can easily get caught up in other aspects of travel, like some of the ones I mentioned above. But there will and always will come a time to kick back, take a deep breathe, close your eyes, exhale, open them, and take it all in.

There is always a single point or multiple point in any extended trip I’ve taken, where I shut everything out and be in a particular moment. Sometimes I cry & sometimes I just simply smile and look at the horizon. But it’s these moment I find crucial to the balance in life as it closes a chapter of your life, top begin an embark on a new one. Everytime I had these moments, I have progressed in becoming a better traveler and a better person. Just happier in all honesty. These are the moments, I look forward.

I have experienced 8 years of life in 4 years of travel.

Time has no prejudice, which is why traveling the world is such a priority to me. Because in this short life we live, travel makes you whole. With the amount of world I still have left to see, it’s crazy to know that I’ve barely scratched the surface. Whoever you are out there! I know you feel the same. And even if you have yet to travel, I know you know that this is attainable. Travel may have been the lead cause for this pandemic to reach the heights that it reached, but as we get to do some of the things we miss doing now, that will be the same for travel, Borders will open up, planes will fly, & soon we will explore this beautiful world again.