Hi guys !
I really want to talk about travel experiences with you.
So, last (academic) year I was in gap year, and I wanted to visit London. So I worked few months putting money aside and in January I took my plane to Gatwick, I was really scared, alone, in a huge city like London. I got lost in the tube, struggling to find my hostel but finally I found my way, and my hostel. I used to sleep in room of pretty decent size in my home but there we were 12 in not much more than 12m², It was really unusual for me. but I got used to it, I spend 3 months there, 3 wonderfull months,I met amazing people from all around the World. I jumped in the real world head first, It was the first time in my life I felt hunger, real hunger, not the "I have skip the breakfast" hunger, the fear when you don't know if you'll have a roof over the head tonight, but It was so great, I was really happy.
Do you know the quote "Happiness is out of your comfort zone." I can tell this is true.
Unfortunately I restart my studies and now, more than ever I'm deep down in my comfort zone.
It's your turn now, tell us your last travel experience :)
We went to the hotel & it was awful. It had a walled courtyard full of crap & a big steel gate at the front. We went into the courtyard & you could see all of the rooms through their open doors off the courtyard. There was a 6' line of ants running down the wall leading into one room. At one side of the courtyard the owner was sitting in a chair with about 3 men, all drinking beer. The guy who led us there sat with them & immediately started complaining about us in Spanish. The owner told us the price of the room (I can't remember what it costed, it didn't matter) and I said we weren't interested. He had one of those artificial larynx things that you hold up to your throat to speak. That scared the hell out of my wife too. He dropped the price & I still said no. He dropped it again. Now I knew at some point his pride would be hurt so my wife decided it was time to leave and we started backing toward the gate. It was shut & locked and very tall. She started pushing & pulling on the gate & screaming bloody murder. The hotel owner just laughed & had one of his men open the gate & we left.
The rest of our trip was fairly uneventful and we quite loved Portugal & Spain.
Years ago, my wife & I visited Spain & Portugal. We landed in Lisbon, left from Barcelona & just traveled around the coast. We had no reservations for any hotels. When we got to Seville, some guy in town told us that he'd take us to a great hotel so being stupid tourists, we followed him. He was walking along with his dog, kicking a can and talking to himself in Spanish. We were walking down smaller & narrower lanes, getting further & further from the central, tourist friendly part of town. My wife was getting nervous & told me to tell him that we'd changed our mind. I waited for one more turn of a corner & finally told him we would head back. He said the hotel was just around the next corner & we should at least see it. We were well out of our comfort zone by then but didn't want to cause a scene.
Hi. Finally a nice discussion. Well, I left my home about 10 years ago.
The reason was not a journey but my economic situation.
I must admit it was no easy the first year. Language , job, people. I lived in Spain for 3 years on my own. And I met a girl. We were happy together. I thought she would be my woman for the rest of my life but we overestimated feelings. Now I live in Italy and maybe I will leave this country because the cost living is high and there is no job. I was thinking to go in Brazil. ;)
My experiences are mostly bad. Often people who gives you a hand are foreigners. Natives don't care about you.
This discussion came back! Apparently its deletion was a mistake in the "settings".
Sorry about that, I think I should rename the post "Bad travel experiences, let's talk about that" ! :)
