Slow Travel Lessons — a Start
I’ve been back in LA since a couple of days now, slowly understanding where I am in the world again. Traveling slowly definitely gives you the chance to adapt to changing places in a softer way — however the shift from being in the “travel bubble” to “having arrived” is as sharp as always and takes time to acclimatize to.
I’ve gotten so many questions about the trip, and this way to travel, and before leaving Sweden I wrote a text (in Swedish) where I boiled down the main areas that many of the conversations with people along the way circled around, namely:
Environment — how this individual trip is maybe not a “big gain” (or any, even), environmentally speaking, compared to flying. But still a more hopeful one for the future, in my eyes
Economy/Personal Finances — what the cheapest possible way to make this trip is, and how that is still “expensive”, compared to the subsidized flights, and how it is still worth it for anyone who has the chance, in my opinion
Emotional — how I’ve felt like an a 1000 times better person along this whole trip, emotionally, than if I had taken a flight
Classicism — how the privilege of traveling is itself exactly that — a privilege (the “right” passport) and a question of class (money), and how that was highlighted on this trip (no solution offered)
Future Traveling? — how, to me, this is how I want to travel now, if and when I travel, and how I am hoping for greener crossings over the Atlantic in the future
The Swedish text can also be found here on facebook for anyone wanting to try out the translation service there. 🙂 I am hoping to write more about all those topics in the coming days — and also there are so many things wanting to be done right now so we’ll see!
Some background in the meantime:
An interview (in Swedish) from early in the summer:
And in Dutch radio here (starting with the valid question “Aren’t you exaggerating a bit now?” — I guess we’ll all need to go and find a Dutch friend to translate to us what the answer was 😀 ):
http://www.nporadio1.nl/bureau-buitenland/onderwerpen/507351-jennie-heeft-flygskam-klimatangest
Originally published at http://pancakesonthethird.com on September 11, 2019.
