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#11
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#12
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I don't know where you call home,
but I'll bet there are many things you don't know about it. If you find a new career, friends, locale, etc, you'll find that same "awe of the new" that travel gives you. Hmmm..... very thought provoking! I live in a small town of 17,000..... and have always thought of life here as boring. Maybe you are right in that there are many "worlds" right here in my own home town I don't know of. Would you agree? Is that your point? |
#13
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I don't know where you call home,
but I'll bet there are many things you don't know about it. If you find a new career, friends, locale, etc, you'll find that same "awe of the new" that travel gives you. Hmmm..... very thought provoking! I live in a small town of 17,000..... and have always thought of life here as boring. Maybe you are right in that there are many "worlds" right here in my own home town I don't know of. Would you agree? Is that your point? |
#14
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#15
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#16
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Exactly. Small towns are a little different in that often, you know
_everybody_ in town, and _every_ road in the place. But in a 50 mile radius... OK Thanks for the viewpoint! |
#17
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Exactly. Small towns are a little different in that often, you know
_everybody_ in town, and _every_ road in the place. But in a 50 mile radius... OK Thanks for the viewpoint! |
#18
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Ah... this thread is like mind candy for the many of us who have had the
same experience and the same kind of realization afterwards... Yes, as one poster said, the travel book sales indicates that there are many many people who do/did this sort of thing. On the other hand, we are dwarfed in % of population by those who have not done this kind of thing. The first time I had that experience (as you did).. after my first long trip.. it seemed like a real epiphany. A couple of more times I and I got used to it. It's interesting though... the initial phase after a first big trip is to have new perspective on everything back home and... a type of reverse culture shock... where you can't take everyone's daily lives and little problems very seriously and you fee like you want to (somewhat arrogantly) laugh at their little confined worlds. And then, as time goes, on (assuming you don't immediately have the chance to take off again)... that same regular daily routine creeps back into your own life (despite all that you swore to fend it off and travel again right away or whatever)... and then one day your sitting in your little cubicle daydreaming of some far off bizarre foreign experience that you have... one that now seems surrealistic - more like a dream that you had one night than something that you genuinely experienced. That's usually when the cycle repeats as you start to and you find yourself needing to find a way to plan another trip. Yes that's the life of the (independent) travel bug bitten... OK... then life goes on and maybe trip lengths shorten and maybe destinations become easier/safer... because maybe now you have family to take along... but the feeling never completely goes away. And you always have the one piece of consolation even when you can't travel... that at least you know what it feels like to have had these experiences whatever they were... and you don't really need those around you to truly understand it, for it to have enhanced your life. Be grateful for your experiences - you don't really need their validation... And learn to try to respect those around you even when it seems their "world" is quite a bit smaller. They can't help it (oops, being a little arrogant again). Every once in a while you will meet someone who really DOES want to hear your stories. Not only will that make you feel a little better about it... getting it "off your chest" a little... but it usually happens when someone else is starting to consider travelling for the first time themselves, in which case they want to know what you know. Help them and in a year or two when they suddenly re-appear after their trip... you can sit back and observe their "reverse culture shock" and you can sit back and chuckle a little... .... on a similar point... after travelling a few times... it starts becoming fun watching the backpack travellers congregate in some standard/easy travellers crossroads like Khao San road in Bangkok, or Amsterdam or whatever... and watch their excitement (and somewhat conceited self-congratulations) and having gotten there... despite the fact that they have not even scratched the surface of what's out there (- well non of us really have, have we?). "Hallvard Tangeraas" wrote in message om... I recently came back after a more than 8 month long trip around the world and have had an absolutely fantastic time!!! Getting back home was like pulling the emergency brake on the train. Quite an abrupt stop in other words. No more excitement, new places/things/people to see every single day etc. And nobody really understands the whole concept of travelling like this or has much interest in hearing about it all. 2 minutes seems plenty for most people. I guess it's hard to relate to something like this when most people have only had 2 week vacations now and then. So how do you other guys handle this sort of thing? How do you get back to an everyday life, or do you? I'm pretty free at the moment, not knowing exactly what to do with my life, so I'm trying to get ideas. I don't feel particularly at home anywhere, so I guess home could be anywhere. I'd like to hear what other people having done after something like this. Hallvard |
#19
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Ah... this thread is like mind candy for the many of us who have had the
same experience and the same kind of realization afterwards... Yes, as one poster said, the travel book sales indicates that there are many many people who do/did this sort of thing. On the other hand, we are dwarfed in % of population by those who have not done this kind of thing. The first time I had that experience (as you did).. after my first long trip.. it seemed like a real epiphany. A couple of more times I and I got used to it. It's interesting though... the initial phase after a first big trip is to have new perspective on everything back home and... a type of reverse culture shock... where you can't take everyone's daily lives and little problems very seriously and you fee like you want to (somewhat arrogantly) laugh at their little confined worlds. And then, as time goes, on (assuming you don't immediately have the chance to take off again)... that same regular daily routine creeps back into your own life (despite all that you swore to fend it off and travel again right away or whatever)... and then one day your sitting in your little cubicle daydreaming of some far off bizarre foreign experience that you have... one that now seems surrealistic - more like a dream that you had one night than something that you genuinely experienced. That's usually when the cycle repeats as you start to and you find yourself needing to find a way to plan another trip. Yes that's the life of the (independent) travel bug bitten... OK... then life goes on and maybe trip lengths shorten and maybe destinations become easier/safer... because maybe now you have family to take along... but the feeling never completely goes away. And you always have the one piece of consolation even when you can't travel... that at least you know what it feels like to have had these experiences whatever they were... and you don't really need those around you to truly understand it, for it to have enhanced your life. Be grateful for your experiences - you don't really need their validation... And learn to try to respect those around you even when it seems their "world" is quite a bit smaller. They can't help it (oops, being a little arrogant again). Every once in a while you will meet someone who really DOES want to hear your stories. Not only will that make you feel a little better about it... getting it "off your chest" a little... but it usually happens when someone else is starting to consider travelling for the first time themselves, in which case they want to know what you know. Help them and in a year or two when they suddenly re-appear after their trip... you can sit back and observe their "reverse culture shock" and you can sit back and chuckle a little... .... on a similar point... after travelling a few times... it starts becoming fun watching the backpack travellers congregate in some standard/easy travellers crossroads like Khao San road in Bangkok, or Amsterdam or whatever... and watch their excitement (and somewhat conceited self-congratulations) and having gotten there... despite the fact that they have not even scratched the surface of what's out there (- well non of us really have, have we?). "Hallvard Tangeraas" wrote in message om... I recently came back after a more than 8 month long trip around the world and have had an absolutely fantastic time!!! Getting back home was like pulling the emergency brake on the train. Quite an abrupt stop in other words. No more excitement, new places/things/people to see every single day etc. And nobody really understands the whole concept of travelling like this or has much interest in hearing about it all. 2 minutes seems plenty for most people. I guess it's hard to relate to something like this when most people have only had 2 week vacations now and then. So how do you other guys handle this sort of thing? How do you get back to an everyday life, or do you? I'm pretty free at the moment, not knowing exactly what to do with my life, so I'm trying to get ideas. I don't feel particularly at home anywhere, so I guess home could be anywhere. I'd like to hear what other people having done after something like this. Hallvard |
#20
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It's almost impossible to find a place that _hasn't_ been touristed.
This doesn't need to be a goal in itself, although many seem to make it out to be. Some writers of Lonely Planet or Rough Guides books sometimes fall into this trap. I hate the overrun Cancuns of the work as much as any non-package tourist would. I have sought out interesting non-touristy places because I want to experience local culture/sights/experiences rather than someone's idea of what a "tourist" wants. Personally, it doesn't bother me that there are a few thousand travellers that have managed to enjoy similar experiences. Let me rephrase that. If you're doing a RTW trip, it's almost impossible. Well, I certainly agree that many travellers/tourists are what I like to call "Checklist" travellers, i.e. those that hop quickly from place to place just enough to be able to say "been there". The Checklist travellers rarely find many very unique experiences. I supose their goals are different though No matter where you go, you'll find someone who's done far more intrepid stuff, more radical traveling. "radical traveling" ? Sounds like a competition. A new Olympic event? Maybe it should be a gameshow or reality TV. Oh, I guess they've tried that? Again, I can bask in feeling that my life was enriched by travel experiences regardless of how much more intrepid or radical someone else's travel was. I like to share stories with other current/former world travellers but I loath to have my sentence cut off half-way by someones "oh yah, well I [fill in the blank with their "radical" travelling experience]..." I always enjoyed the more 'intrepid" approach to travel, however I would hate to think of it in competative terms. And you'll find those people at home, too, but they don't have tattoos on their forehead that say, "world traveller." They're working at normal jobs, being normal people and saving money for their next trip. Not tattoos... but sometimes a little more educated about the word in ways that do sometimes reflect in the attitudes that they express in their daily lives. |
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