What I miss when we’re on the road

Sometimes a four-legged friend is missing on the road

Travelling has such a positive effect on me. Every time I’m in a new country or city, every time I have an encounter with a different language, culture or tradition my senses are heightened. I love to fully immerse myself in a new place, watch the hustle and bustle of the local market square or eavesdrop when an interesting conversation is happening near me at a bar or café. In addition to that, I love to try the local dishes and I’m not shy to indulge in weird food…hey, if it doesn’t want to stay down, you can always release it, right?

Ever-changing living space

Thanks to our nomadic lifestyle we meet lots of new people, well at least our Airbnb hosts, and get to call many different apartments our own for a little while. Even though it’s awesome to get to change our living space every few days/weeks/months, it can become a bit of a strain, especially if we fell in love with an apartment. I did have a hard time leaving certain places in the past but on the other hand I was also very happy to get out of some mould-infested others.

Making friends can be a double-edged sword. When you travel you tend to meet lots of interesting people but at one point someone’s always leaving. Lots of good-byes or see you again at another place, my friend. I’ve shed the odd tear before when watching great people go. I’ve learnt over the years though, that if your friendship is based on the same values you’ll manage to keep in touch no matter how long you don’t see each other. When you meet again, it’s like no time has passed.

If you have limited time, make sure it’s quality

The same goes for my family and friends from back home. It’s always nice to visit the homeland and spend some quality time there. Time is often used in a better way than if I’d be living in the same city because it’s limited and therefore precious. This makes the good-byes easier because there’s always the next visit to look forward to. Every year we’re going for a hike with my dad in summer, for example, and it’s a pleasure to taste my mum’s Schnitzel after we’ve been gone for a while.

That’s not what I’m talking about when I say I’m missing a pet

There’s one thing though, that’s missed greatly when we’re travelling from place to place. Next to a home base that we’ll hopefully sort out next year, I really miss having pets around. We’ve kind of adopted the pets of our friends and families when we’re staying at their place, and I started feeding stray cats when we’re on the road. That’s not the same as having our own cats & dogs (and a turtle named Turbo), which is obviously not possible while we’re travelling. I think we’ve reached our lowest point a couple of weeks ago in Croatia when we bought a basil plant, gave it a name (Bernard) and talked to it. In the end we couldn’t even bring ourselves to eat it so we left it behind at the Airbnb with a heavy heart (sigh).

Who knows what next year brings, definitely more trips and adventures, but we might also find a travel-friendly cat or dog. Or maybe we’ll start with a turtle…