Observations From My Travels

Observations from my travels

It’s hard to believe I’ve been on the road for TWO MONTHS! Still happily focused on my travels and enjoying my trip. Here are a few observations from my travels (mixed with some photos):

I’ve met so many amazing people

It’s refreshing to meet so many new people with such different backgrounds, history and beliefs, so frequently. The only life stage I can compare this to is freshman year in college when everything was new and everything was worth exploring. Moving to a new city and starting new jobs felt adventurous for a time, but then soon you belong to a group of people and have a routine in place. Moving hostels every few days means you’re guaranteed to have that “new” feeling repeatedly. What’s really special however is that I’ve met up with some people in multiple cities when our travel plans align or when we change our plans to go hang out together somewhere new. What a small world. It’s a freeing feeling being able to change your plans to get to know someone better! I do miss amigos back home (hi!) but I’m keeping up via social media and whatsapp 🙂

The “work hard, play hard” mindset can be hard to get over

Transitioning to full-time travel instead of a full-time “real” job involves a complete change in your routine and mindset. If you make it your “job” to see every famous church before your gelato break, you’ll soon be sick of churches. More importantly, you will miss out on some sweet gelato. I used to be this kind of traveler, “working” as a tourist, but mostly because time was limited to just a few days. For the first month, my previous travel habits kept creeping up into my thought process.

When I was working a regular job, each day I felt like I accomplished something. Even if work was slow (hah!), just the act of going to work made it feel like I had done something responsible with the day. I was a successful adult, providing for myself. The “accomplishment” mindset continued to persist through the first month or so. If I didn’t see one of the “top 10 sites of X city” in a day, I wondered if I wasted my time. If I just hung out with friends I met in the hostel, is that a good use of my time? Through month two, I been made an effort to not overwhelm myself with feelings of FOMO (that’s “Fear Of Missing Out”) in each city. NOMO FOMO. If I’m happy in the present, then that’s a glorious thing! Sometimes happy can be going to a museum and sometimes it’s hearing about another travelers’ life back home. I’ve largely been future-plan-less, only booking hostels a few days out at a time. While this introduced some silly stress, everything worked out for the best.

I’m painfully aware how lucky I am to be taking this trip and don’t want to squander the opportunity. But if I think through what the opportunity is exactly, it’s to try and live my life according to my own expectations and not others’. Sometimes that means staying up way too late laughing with new friends over a couple of beers. Still, I find myself wanting easily describable “accomplishments” to share. I found I get a small rush of that accomplished feeling when I post a daily photo on Instagram. So that’s the plan for now: “work when it feels right and play when it feels right.” No more extremes. Also the next accomplishment…

I’ve never walked this much in my life

New York City forces you to be pretty active, so before my trip, I was averaging close to 3 miles of walking a day with my daily commute and walking in the evening. I’m currently averaging EIGHT miles a day walking (according to my phone step-tracking app). Some days it’s more, some days it’s less. I’m going to need some new shoes soon at this pace! It’s really nice to realize that just your own two feet have taken you so far. I’ve taken a lot of planes, trains, and automobiles as well, but my feet are my favorite mode of transportation when traveling. It’s also the cheapest mode of transport so it saves me a lot of money on the road 🙂

Want to watch me walking? LOL. One of my travel friends Cedric is filming his travels and included our hiking day in the mountains outside of Granada, Spain. Check it out for some incredible drone footage of our crew at the top of a huge cliff:

Consensus is I look about 24 years old

Thanks sunscreen and mom & dad for the good genes!

No really, this is wonderful news for the future of my face but makes it a little more difficult to meet people my own age on the road. Hostels bring people together regardless of age so it’s been no problem hanging out with people. It’s just nice to sometimes meet people closer to your own age because we generally have a little more in common. I’m totally not interested in talking to the 20 year old about their “like crazy high alcohol tolerance”! 😛 Although I will take snapchat advice- I’ll soon be a pro haha. Hire me as a millennial consultant for $20k an hour?I’ve truly had a great time getting to know people of all ages and I’m thankful other travelers are so open minded and willing to hang out with a variety of ages.

New York City completely spoiled me art-wise

When everyone said that the Uffizi in Florence was the most amazing place they’ve seen, I should have taken it with a grain of salt. Instead my expectations were sky high, up in the clouds. Although I really loved seeing the Birth of Venus and Primavera in person, there wasn’t an overwhelmingly jaw-dropping amount of art like there is at the Met in NYC. Maybe it just wasn’t my style? So lesson learned, expectations adjusted. And next time I’m in NYC, I’m going to go walk around the met for five hours just because I can.

More photos on my Instagram (takes a lot less time to upload them there!)

Love from Espana,

Ashley