Everyone’s always asking questions such as “How can you afford to travel?” and “Are you rich?” or “Where do you get money from?” I keep putting off that article because there are about 247 million search results for “budget travel” so another related article just doesn’t seem crucial (but here are some spoilers: I own the same pair of pants for 17 years and I clean houses sometimes to earn money).
Anywho, very few people actually ask the important questions such as “Don’t you feel lonely traveling by yourself?” and “Isn’t it hard to leave loved ones behind?” My answers are “sometimes” and “yes,” respectively. I love the freedom of traveling alone, doing what I want when I want, but there are times when I’d like to share with others a view of the Pacific Ocean or just silence while walking around Seville. The leaving loved ones behind is a bigger issue though.
I’m living in my fifth country, the Netherlands, and I’ve friends and/or family in all four other countries where I’ve lived (Brazil, the USA, France and Italy) as well as in many other countries. This means that I’m always far away from people I love and it gets pretty hard. A friend gets married, my little brother becomes a daddy, another friend has major surgery and I can’t be there for all of them – if for any at all.
When you spend money you can work and replace it but when you’re not there to see your grandmother in her last days of life there is absolutely nothing you can do to replace those lost moments nor is there a replacement for the hugs you didn’t get from your dad. As much as I love to travel and to have new experiences (and I really love it all!), it does get difficult. There are days when you’re facing beauty beyond belief or having the most interesting conversation to date with some stranger and as happy and glad and thankful as you are for it all you can’t help but shed some tears of saudade* before falling sleep. But it’s all just part of the deal.
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*”Saudade” is a Portuguese word without direct translation into English. It refers to a deep feeling of longing for someone, for home or for a period of your life for example. Here’s the wiki page explaining this special word.
A very nice post Ana! There are a lot of people out there who, for their own various reasons, have also chosen to live the kind of ‘peripatetic’ life you lead. You are not alone, even if sometimes you can only see one pair of footprints on the beach. Console yourself with that thought, if nothing else.
Let’s drink a toast to living ‘a life less ordinary’ – a fellow traveller salutes you!
:)
A toast, Alan!
:)
Sorry for the late reply, I thought I’d set it to be notified of follow-up posts here. Ah well.
Yes, a toast indeed! Glühwein for everyone!
(Café Brecht, in my buurt, does a fine line in these).
If you ever feel the urge to step back in time to sup a hot drink in a 1930′s era German grandmother’s living room, surrounded by half-finished knitting, let me know and I’ll join you there!
I love that place! Maybe I’ll see you there :)
yes.
thank you for this honest and intimate post, Ana.
love all ’round,
beth