I’ve heard these words more often than not when telling friends and family where my travels are taking me 🙂 I find it funny that it’s so often their first reaction.
Like most of us, I have different groups of friends. I tend to categorize them into my travel friends and non travel friends. Both groups of friends help to balance me and keep me (somewhat?) sane and motivated. They challenge me, support me and help me be the best I can be. I love them all!
What’s the difference between them? My travel friends are people that I worked with while working as a tour guide. They’ve globe trotted while getting paid and traveled on teeny tiny budgets during their off-seasons. They’re people who can live out of a backpack or suitcase, always have a passport nearby (that isn’t close to expiring) and are as comfortable at crossing borders as they are going to Target. They’ve slept in famous castles in foreign lands and on top of vans in the desert. They’ve sipped the finest of wines they could never afford with people who could and then made do with a $2 bottle when they were paying for their own. They’re the ones that always tell me to go when I ask advice about a spur of the moment trip.
My non-travel friends are friends who prefer to take traditional vacations. Most often they plan their trips prior to going, book hotels, cars and sometimes even restaurants. They make spreadsheets. They prefer to feel comfortable knowing what’s happening next and have an agenda. These friends have traditional jobs that only offer a week or two of vacation time and they value the time they have and want to make the most of each day. They travel to safe and comfortable destinations, usually English speaking, have water that you can drink from the tap and food that you can trust. These are the people who will most likely say: you’re going where? are you nuts?
Of course there is overlap and not everyone fits into one category or the other but I tend to generalize depending on the kind of vacation I’m planning 🙂
I haven’t taken a long trip since 2008 and I’m a different person than I was back then. In a lot of ways, I’m still spontaneous and am happy to pack my bags and get out of town on a moments notice and then there is part of me who feels really comfortable in my daily life. I’ve gotten used to sleeping in my own bed, grocery shopping and opening the fridge to find all my own food. I don’t need to wear flip flops in the shower nor share a bathroom down the hall with random strangers. There are times that life like that makes be feel too comfortable and I need to shake things up and re-energize myself!
Which brings me to this trip. I like going to places that not a lot of other people go to. Sure, plenty of people go to Greece and Croatia but how many Americans go to Macedonia or Montenegro? Why fly over a country instead of traveling through a country and learning about it? Capturing photos of what makes it special or share stories with the people from there? Eating the food of the region and sharing in the traditions of meals with locals? Those are the things I love doing!
I hope that you enjoy sharing my adventures with me as I travel through south central Europe! Even if it’s not a place that you would spend your vacation time, I do hope you learn something fun while I share mine with you!
And yes, I am kinda crazy. 🙂
Inkleined To Travel 