Using social media to praise the ego

Have you ever thought why you like/ don’t like traveling?

What do you like about traveling? What don’t you like about traveling?

The following article is about different ways of traveling and how it is much more than crossing borders.

Teenager times

Traveling was something that I was always looking forward to as a teenager. Every year, my sister and I, would travel to different places with our parents. As our parents were divorced, we had guaranteed two different destinations. It could be simply traveling to another part of Portugal or to the other side of the world. At the time I didn’t participate much in the planning, I just wanted to go. However, I knew more or less what we were going to see: the monuments, the parks, the tourist attractions etc. We would buy city guide-books that made it easier for us to check the marks as we went. It was handy, as most of them had a map of the city at the back cover, in case we got lost.

Even though we were on holidays, there was most of the time, some kind of stress involved. Figuring out where the hotel was, finding a public phone to call the family to tell them we arrived safely, understanding how the public transportation worked in order to get to places or trying to communicate in other languages. It all meant stress at some level and I only acknowledge it now, with some distance. Maybe because when you are somewhere unknown, you stay in an alert mode that makes you vigilant and doesn’t allow relaxation to sink in.

Regardless the way we travelled, it was something I was always grateful for. We got to see beautiful beaches, parks, attractions & monuments and I thank both my parents for that.

Young adult times

At 20 years old, while doing an exchange program in Germany for one year, I got the chance to travel with a girlfriend on an inter city rail. We bought the train pass that would allow us to hop aboard anytime and hop off anywhere (within a selection of five or six countries). We packed our rucksacks with a couple pairs of socks, underwear and food. Nothing really was planed, not even the places where we would sleep. In this way we would be free and open to any opportunity that would show up in front of us. We just did whatever we felt like doing and as soon as we were done with a city, we would hop on the train again to the next destination. In one week, we were able to be in four different countries — Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary. Obviously we only got a glimpse of every place but the best thing in the end of the day was the feeling of freedom. Freedom because time didn’t exist as there was nothing that had to be done, there was no one to be met, there was nowhere to be at a certain time. We were not dependent on anything and nothing was depended on us.

For the first time in my life, traveling had another taste and infinite possibilities.

Different times

As I got to work in hospitality in Amsterdam for quite some time, I got to see different ways of traveling. The people that arrived with their “whole house” inside the luggage, the people that barely left the hotel bar to see the city, the people that got lost outside and came back to the hotel after a couple days, the people that always wore the same clothes because their bag got lost, the seven members family that wanted to fit in a double room, etc. I think I saw it all and have hilarious stories from that period.

One thing is for sure: there’s no right or wrong way on how to travel. Traveling is just a way of getting out of our comfort zone. And someone’s comfort zone can mean traveling two hours away from their home or a bit more or a lot more.

Recent times

In the beginning of 2017, my (solo) trip started in Bali with Nico and a girlfriend of mine, where we travelled together for a couple weeks. When their time to say goodbye was approaching, I started to feel emptiness and a huge uncertainty of what was to come. So I decided to enroll in Indonesian cooking classes as soon as they left. That week of learning Balinese plant based cooking with a local chef gave me a new purpose to my travelling experience. From that moment on, I would cook in every single country, traditional (plant based) food, with local cooks or chefs. And so I did. Indonesia was followed by Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia.

Merging two passions of mine — plant based food and traveling — gave a new twist to this trip. In a way, made it easier for me to decide which next country I would travel to, as I was dependent on finding cooks and chefs that were able or willing to teach me. And that was not an easy task.

Spending a month in each country didn’t mean cooking all the time. In fact, I would only have five or six cooking classes with each chef. In the remaining time I was in a love-hate relationship with other people: either hiding from them, as a good introvert would do, or hanging out with like-minded fellow travellers or locals.

In truth, having this purpose of traveling was a way of introducing me to every culture and cooking became a good excuse to hang out and bond with local people. Local people that then became my friends and would introduce me to their friends. Sooner or later, I was meeting them for hikes, dinners and parties. They would connect me to more friends in other cities and I quickly felt like I belonged, despite being on the other side of the world.

With time, traveling became for me more then seeing a new monument, sunbathing in a crystal clear beach or taking a picture in front of a famous sculpture. It became a fully cultural experience involving all senses. It made me understand that the people we cross paths with, while on the road, are the ones that make or break an experience. It made me realize that my comfort zone is not limited by space or distance but ratter by interacting with people.

A note for future times

Have you ever thought why is it important for you to take pictures in front of a building, just because it’s situated somewhere else, away from home? One thing is for sure, I do it (check out the picture illustrating this article), everybody does it or has done it in the pass. But does that say anything about your trip, either than checking a mark on your “what to see” list? What if, instead of taking the picture, you write about what you are looking at, what did you like about the city, what was the vibe of the locals, what did you think of the building you were about to take a picture with?

Even further, why not asking a local the story of the building? And if they don’t know, well you can always tell them a story about the best looking building in your hometown.

The memories we have with people are the ones that make good stories. And the stories we bring home to tell friends and family are much more appreciated than pictures. The pictures…those we can post on social media to praise our ego. But that’s it.