One cycling night, I was so out of energy, I simply fell asleep over putting on my pants to go have dinner…īuilding bonds and friendships I arrived in a new-to-me place when I arrived in Kunming. I don’t have to scan my surroundings for restaurants or the tiny hints that give a rural grocery store away. I go over to the kitchen and grab a bite when I am hungry. At home, I just go over to my bed – I don’t cover 15km cycling, looking for a camp site which I deem safe or put up a tent. But besides that, there is also the mental energy that I use in a way I don’t need to do it at home. These are things that are really hard on a cycling day as so much energy has been spend on – of course – cycling. If I stay long enough friendships can form. I meet the same people more than once, can have deeper conversations, we can agree on doing stuff together. Arriving, or rather staying at a place, ensures different things. I sleep at a strange, new place I don’t know anything about yet, not even where it is. Cycling ensures so much – I am physically active, I see new things, I come across surprised people and maybe even some wildlife I never ever dreamed of meeting in their natural habitat, I love all the food I’ll be eating, I take a wrong turn. Inevitably both are part of bike touring. This night and this morning exemplify how I feel about being on the move and arriving at a place. To nudge some more moments out of the traveling part, before I had to arrive. With this thought in my head – and two hard-boiled eggs in my tummy – my whole attitude changed. And cycled the last bit – the very last bit I would spent cycling during these five months. Just tired of traveling, desperate to arrive. Of the cars and trucks that are passing me way to close on these narrow, winding roads in the mountains of Yunnan. Moving! But if you are always on the move, especially by your own body power, there are some disadvantages as well. Of course cycling is taking this to an extreme but this is whatI love about bike touring. Once, I took two trains from Melbourne via Sydney to Brisbane with an estimated travel time of about 24 hours instead of simply taking a plane for a couple of hours as I was going to enjoy the time on the train. Moving vs being stationary I always loved to be on the move. What didn’t change at all is that I still strongly advocate solo-traveling! Hope you enjoy reading the article – please let me know what insights you gained from traveling! And some things I already was (kind of) aware of. But this isn’t focusing on me ‘learning’ in the academic way. If I labeled it “what I learned” it would be a totally different article. As it reflects what happened to me internally. This title feels like the one that fits the most. March 2019 Categories Bike touring, China, KurzMalWeg2018, Long Term Traveling 6 Comments on What traveling for five months does to you – Part II What traveling for five months does to you – Part I Hairline cracks in your relationship, that might have been there before, turned into crevasses. You feel lonely.įinally, you and your partner talk. For this moment, you only know, you are out. You don’t get an explanation until much later. Friends suddenly text you to say that they can’t deal with you at the moment. You assume they understand you, they get you. You get a feeling of misunderstandings that happen. You try texting with your significant other. From an 8000km distance there is no telling the difference between obliviousness and anger. There is more interference and loss of connection than communication. You use the WiFi and switch to mobile data. Talking on the phone needs to be planned and scheduled due to time difference. Finally, you make it. You finally learn you hurt someone who is very important to you. Since they claim it’s none of their business. No-one is keeping you up to date on what’s happening. Actually, you don’t even know that something is going on. So, you don’t have a clue what is going on. You only text every few weeks to months with people you are in touch with on a more regular and frequent basis when you are back home. You have patchy internet, need a VPN or fall asleep getting dressed for dinner. But you are busy, you are in a different world. About you not being a good person, partner, friend. It becomes very difficult to maintain relationships, especially the one with your partner. Especially for partnerships it can be hard. But this is also part of long-term-traveling: Your friendships and partnerships back home change. Of meeting new people and making new bonds. Many times you can read about the glamorous parts of traveling. But it doesn’t feel complete if I leave this part out – and it simply is part of it. That’s why, this part is the hardest to write and the hardest to publish. But with smartphones, social networks and a blog – things clearly are going to be different, right? They are for sure.
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