There is a group of people amongst our generation that just can't seem to sit still.
And I know, because I've lived, for shorter or longer periods of time, in 6 countries over the last 5 years. It feels like there is a certain need inside you to go again, experience again, keep looking for more, for better: grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side kind of attitude. And if you expect me to say now that it isn't and give some kind of philosophical explanation for why we keep thinking it will be better 'there' rather than 'here'... I'll just tell you this - I don't know about the grass, but the sky is definitely bluer!
Now let me explain.
Think about going to a new country, or even a new city in your country, but the further away it is located the better, and it has to be new. Imagine you take a camera. What kind of pictures are you taking?
Everything around us is interesting, so many things seem worth preserving in our digital memory.
And we always look up. The sky is blue. I've never noticed it being so blue at home...
Do you ever look up when you're walking to work for the 100th time this year? Or do you just walk straight to get there in the shortest way possible, even cutting corners whenever possible?
I bet that if you had someone walk by your side, someone who's never been there before, who is used to buildings which look different to those surrounding you now... THEY would keep their heads up! And take plenty of pictures. And think that the sky is bluer where you are :)
New is different. Different means an experience. But what we need to learn is to draw excitement from the lives we already have. Sounds so ridiculous so I would just like to make sure that you understand me - I am not telling everyone to quit moving from country to country. Some people might want to do it for different reasons and whatever they are, I am sure they can figure them out and assess the gains and the losses of being constantly on the move.
BUT...
In my case I had an obsession with starting over. New place. Fresh start. It happened so that, as a child, I changed schools many times. So I was so used to starting in a new environment, and with new people, that I just kept going and the moment I turned 18 (and could travel alone) I started moving across Europe.
Someone wise suggested I was looking for something. Something I couldn't, apparently, find in one place.
You don't know the change is there until it's done.
I don't know when it happened. I don't know how it happened. I know who's presence in my life helped me make it happen ;-)
But the truth is things have changed and now I am ready to travel and experience together, without the need to terrorise myself by constant packing of ALL my things into boxes and moving places three times a year. I now lived in one house for almost a year AND have an extension contract signed for another. I have not lived anywhere for so long since I was 16 :)
And don't misunderstand me. I do think that travelling is the best school there is - you learn responsibility, you learn about communication, you learn from all sorts of people.
But I think that while moving around a lot I always lived by the timetable of "what's going to happen next". New arrival. Finding a temporary home. Finding the nearest shop. Connecting to wifi (although in real life that one would probably come before groceries ;]). And then planning a new trip. Almost straight away - there was always a list of possibilities at the back of my head. This was yesterday. This will be tomorrow. I could rarely find the real present tense.
This has changed. I keep a list of travel plans. Travel plans. Go and come back. No looking for temporary locations. I learnt to enjoy the 'in-betweenness' of travels. No more postponing of the things I really wanted to do.
Yesterday, I spent the day designing - super exciting stuff! I baked a rhubarb crumble, sat on a giant bean bag with doors to the garden wide open. A butterfly flew into the room. I sang and danced. I felt really proud when in the evening I could see the progress of my project. And I was excited when I saw my better half coming back home. We had the crumble AND enjoyed a new episode of Suits. Now those are experiences! Nobody took pictures, there were no hashtags, no salvation and until now nobody knew about it, but My God that was an amazing day! If it was to happen on an exotic trip I would've been waiting forward to having this day for so many days that I would probably fail to notice that in that time I could've spent almost every day like that...
Life is a funny thing. You usually keep looking far away for things that you could have right next to you.
And this is not to say that I'm not going to travel anymore. Plans are being made as we speak. Over the left-over crumble.
Now it's your turn. Look up! Have you noticed how blue the sky is?
Enjoy your evenings! x
BTW, I graduated last Friday. So now that's a graduate's wisdom speaking ;)
Let me tell you something about ongoing travels that you can't see from the always-smiling pictures tagged all around different places.
Travelling is tough.
And no, I don't mind being tired, I don't mind sleeping in a lot of new places, having to
figure out things all over again and again, or standing in a supermarket and wondering
whether a funny looking box you're holding in your hand is actually what you wanted it to
be.
Travelling is tough when it comes to maintaining relationships.
Whether it's family, friends, or a partner; all your relationships are jeopardised when you're
abroad.
Lately I feel like all I hear are stories of people who broke up or have serious problems
thanks to the distance between them. And one may say that distance is just a number, but
the truth is that whatever you had before, you will have to learn to re-create it, almost from
scratch, in a new, long-distance edition.
Family will, hopefully, always stay on your side, even if a lot of times you're too tired to stay
in touch properly, or just too busy trying to preserve the relationships that, if you don't take
a good care of, they will turn into an ugly and unwanted problem, which is likely to be
abandoned by one side sooner than fixed by both of them finally being in the same place geographically...
Friends will also adapt. A true friendship lasts even if you don't talk to each other as often
as before. Over the years I learnt that it comes in waves, sometimes you're more in touch
with one person, some other time you might talk more to someone else. And all I've got is
hope and trust that my friends know I care about them deeply and think about them
waaaaay more than I ever reply to e-mails and texts.
But the trickiest part proves to be a long-distance partnership.
Skype and whatssapp become your daily companions. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a relationship with my laptop's screen, rather than a real person on the other side.
Seeing each other after a longer break, I need a day or to to get back to the 'real person
mode'. And just when you start to feel comfortable with each other again, one of you have
to leave.
So next time you plan and book in advance, you make time and decide to meet
for longer. But even then, at the end of a 10 days long visit you will realise, that it will never
be enough. Doesn't matter if you see each other for 3 or 10 days, it will never be enough.
Never until the day you get back for good.
I can't count how many times we said it out loud. That long-distance sucks. Because it's true. And this problem touches more and more people...
If you know what I'm talking about, watch the video below. A project for all involved in a long-distance relationship.
If you haven't experienced it - be warned ;)
Straight from Hamburg,
ready to turn my Skype on,
-Kat.
"Pillow Talk is a project aiming to connect long distance lovers. Each person has a ring sensor they wear to bed at night, and a flat fabric panel which slots inside their pillowcase. The ring wirelessly communicates with the other person’s pillow; when one person goes to bed, their lover’s pillow begins to glow softly to indicate their presence. Placing your head on the pillow allows you to hear the real-time heartbeat of your loved one." (You'll find more info by clicking here)
* "Hamburger" is actually a German adjective coming from the name of the city. I did not mean a meaty sandwich here ;-)
Long time no post!
It's time to change that.
I arrived in Hamburg two weeks ago, at the worst time of the day - 6AM.
6AM is never a good time. Neither when that's when you start your day, nor when it is when you finish it.
And after a long sleepless night on the coach I did not know whether my day was finishing or just starting...
And neither did Hamburg.
It was a Sunday morning, so the city hasn't quite woken up yet, but the streets were actually full of people - those on their way back home.
I had some time before I could move in to my new home, so I left my luggage at Hauptbahnhof (central station) and decided to explore my new neighbourhood a little.
I was quickly reminded that the European Futball Championships were to end the same day, Germans still all-heartedly supporting their team, even though they recently had lost. (Which was a real shame, really. I was so looking forward to seeing Germany celebrate, like I was lucky to see Spain two years earlier. ;])
Being me, the first thing I had to see was where will I go to work the next day. It turned out that my new office is located in a really pretty area :)
Finally, I went to see the nearest park (nearest looking from both my work's and my new home's perspective). I am pretty sure I will be going to Stadtpark more often on the weekends... when it finally stops raining all the time. ;-)
Those were my first impressions of Hamburg. I will try to update more regularly, but I am making no promises... not any more ;)
When we came to Tarifa it was raining cats and dogs. We run to our hostel and got under blankets as soon as we came to the room. Luckily, we're the kind of people who, when exposed to unfortunate evens, such as rain during your holidays by the beach; instead of getting nervous, we react with laughter. And so we laughed and laughed, beds being comfortable weren't helping with motivation to get up. But after serious discussions about what is happiness (Stephanie said it's sitting in the dry room, eating an apple) we decided that what we need most is chocolate. So only after some serious chocolate hunting (Lidl was at the other side of town), we decided to go to the beach.
It wasn't raining any more, but it was very windy. My shoes had gotten really wet during our run to the hostel earlier, so instead of freezing in wet shoes I went in my flip flops. So, looking really pretty with a scarf all over my neck and head, and flip flops on my feet, I went to meet the Ocean.
It was amazing.
All the rain and wind in the world would be totally worth it. The Ocean.
The long, wide, sandy beach. The waves that don't have neither beginning, nor the end. The sound of the incredible mass of water. The breeze. The air smelling like it can only smell on a beach.
And then, when you look up, behind that wonderful water, there is Africa. Looking like it's too close to be a different continent. It's hard to believe, but it is true.
You go a bit further, closer to a little peninsula, which is the southest south of Spain there is, and there you see the place where Atlantic meets Meditarrean Sea.
When we were on the beach and the sun was going down (behind the clouds, but still giving us beautiful light) Stephanie said 'it's better than an apple'. Then Hannah said 'it's better than chocolate'. And so I say, It was wonderful. Life is beautiful.
