I travel, therefore I am

For Christmas, the friend received the book “Slow Travel” by the British author Dan Kieran as a gift. That same evening I devoured the book while the group of men played Tichu (if you don’t know what that is, please click here). The book is written in an entertaining way and peppered with anecdotes from the everyday life of the well-traveled journalist. Even if I can’t nod my head in the affirmative at all his lines, the book inspired me to finally summarize my thoughts on travel in keywords.

Further away is not better

Recently I had a discussion with a good friend who said:

“The further away, the more exotic the destination, the more foreign the culture, the better the holiday or travel experience”

Not so long ago, I had similar thoughts. It was only when I headed for Gate E at Zurich Airport that I was really excited. Gate E is synonymous with exotic long-haul destinations. A flight from gate A, B or D, how boring is that?! This year was different. The furthest trip this year took me to Marrakech. A medium-haul flight from Gate D. Was this a boring year of travel?

Clearly not! On the contrary, it was incredibly diverse.

I like to browse other blogs. In the past two years, I have noticed that there are many more travel blogs that write about exotic destinations. The countries gripped by wanderlust collect points like Cumulus and have only a weary smile left for their homeland. But hey, further away is not necessarily better. Who has visited all the small European towns that are not yet tourist hotspots? Who has ever traveled to their homeland? Who has ever walked through their own city with a map?

My conclusion of the travel year 2014: in order to satisfy my wanderlust and my spirit of discovery, I don’t necessarily have to head for Gate E at Zurich Airport.

Better not a travel guide than a bad travel guide

You buy a travel guide before the trip, which then lies around untouched on your desk for weeks. Only when you sit on the train or plane do you guiltily pick it up for the first time and frantically leaf through the book, because there is little time left to prepare. Well, does that sound familiar to you?

Dan Kieran describes this phenomenon in his book and I promptly felt caught. But since I had been annoyed about this behavior a long time ago, I drew consequences, since then I only take the appropriate Wallpaper City Guide with me on city trips (and sincerely hope that they finally release an Android app). In addition, I print out the compact tips from the New York Times series “36 hours“. I like the Wallpaper City Guides because they give really great restaurant tips and don’t list standard sights. The focus is on design and architecture. For the rest, I get inspiration directly on site. Yes, sometimes I have to accept that I missed something, but that is a reason to come back again. It’s better to skip something than to work through the top 10 sights of the travel guide and get stuck in average tourist restaurants.

Feel distances in public transport

I agree 100% with Dan Kieran on one point. Flying from A to B crammed into a low-cost airline is not a travel experience. It’s stress. It’s not fun. There is also no discussion of the distances and countries between the origin and destination on the way. You don’t travel, you arrive.

Precisely because I prefer travelling to arriving, I like to travel by train. When I traveled to Berlin for the first time a few years ago, I drove from Bern to Berlin during the day. I wanted to see the rest of Germany through the train window. Or on my last visit to Vienna, we took the night train there and back through the day, combining the return trip with a two-hour stop in Salzburg. What an experience. Equally entertaining was this year’s journey by public transport through Austria, Slovenia and Italy.

When I travel by public transport, I get my first unfiltered impression of the country and its culture. There are also always spontaneous opportunities to talk to the locals. Travelling by public transport also means getting a feel for the distances and getting to grips with the local transport network and language. Challenges that can be mastered, but remain in the memory for much longer than any flight.

More beautiful living

Turning over every penny three times – not my thing. Especially when it comes to choosing accommodation, I’ve become really picky. That doesn’t mean that I only stay in luxury hotels. For me, the price-performance offer has to be right and if I am of the opinion that I get a significantly better performance for a moderately higher price, then the decision has been made. For example, finding accommodation for our upcoming New Year’s Eve trip to Edinburgh was a real challenge. Nicole Hunziker gave me a great B&B tip on Instagram. Unfortunately, it turned out that the accommodation was already fully booked during our travel period. My ambition was now to find an equal B&B, which is also within the budget. After three days of searching and comparing, I found what I was looking for. We are curious to see if the expectations will be met next week.

Of course, we could have just booked accommodation in a hostel or a chain hotel. Had I only been in town for one day, we would have even considered this option. But for five nights over New Year’s Eve, you might as well treat yourself to something.

Traveling alone is stupid

A few years ago, between graduating from high school and starting university, I set out on my own. Discover Sweden and Denmark on your own. Nothing wild. On the one hand, I’m glad that I had made it through on my own with enough time due to a lack of travel expenses. It was an interesting experience, but on the other hand it was also the realization that traveling alone is not for me. I missed the dialogue. Experiences could not be shared or discussed on site. I also missed the good food. Going to a restaurant is part of a travel experience for me, but sitting alone at a restaurant table seemed strange to me. At the time, it seemed like I had been on the road for an eternity. I often sat on a bench in the park for hours and thought about what to do with the rest of the day. My problem was that I was terribly efficient on my own and had visited everything in half the normal time.

Recently, I was once again traveling alone in an Italian city for a day and felt transported back in time to this trip. Travelling as a couple or in a group with good friends simply feels better to me.