Since travelling seems to be cancelled for now, I thought it was the perfect time to sharw with you my list of the things I will never miss about backpacking and travelling, ever !
1. Searching for that one last clean shirt hidden somewhere in your backpack – lying somewhere underneath all the dirty shirts you’ve been carrying around for days and probably covered with sand.
2. That moment when your jar of soluble coffee breaks inside your backpack… it’s way stickier than you think and that stuff goes everywhere.
3. Being terribly sick sharing a room with like, 10 other people and, of course, sharing the bathroom too. Top it with a hot tropical climate with only this one dirty broken fan for "cooling" you.
4. Having wifi and all time to google all tropical diseases in the world to find out which one will kill you today.
5. Altitude Sickness.
6. Night buses. 16 hours isn’t "a short time". You will not "simply sleep through it". Also, 16 hours can mean everything between 16 and 24 hours, so better be ready.
7. Peruvian roads (enjoy the view though)
8. Waiting for a random bus at the side of an even more random road with 300 mosquitos, not knowing if or when you will ever be able to leave or if you should just try and walk using mymaps.
9. Never wearing your hiking boots because "sneakers will do just fine" but carrying them around everywhere you go. Also, asking yourself why you are carrying all other shoes than said sneakers you boarded the plane with and you have been wearing at parties, on every bus and to hike through rivers since day one.
10. When you finally made it on a bus / boat / tuktuk / whatever, put your music on, ready to enjoy the ride, but then John, 55, sitting next to you, starts to tell you about all the stuff he did in india with his 2nd wife in 1986 for like … 4 hours straight !
11. In your dorm, there will be that one guys snoring and that person who doesn’t know headsets have been invented yet and that not everyone will enjoy their music and you will happen to meet those guys the night you lost your last set of earplugs.
12. Skin care is cancelled, your 50 ml tube of sunscreen is all what will bring you through sunburn, mosquito bites and more !
12. Realizing your completely unable to fix a car or a motorbike and that it would be a good time to learn
13. Those guys having sex in your dorm (maybe also the night you forgot your earplugs)
14. Having sex in a dorm yourself
15. That moment where you don’t know if it’s more hygienic to take a shower or to stay away from said shower cabin.
16. Finding that nice little summer dress in your backpack. Who were you when you thought you needed that ? or a bra ? who are we kidding here ?
17. Spending hours on finding out crucial information, like where the bus stop is located, only to find out there are 4 of them and you walked all your way to the wrong one.
18. Wishing you Spanish (insert any language) was better so you could actually understand what this road block is all about and if someone will die or not…
19. Road blocks in general
20. Assessing if you could still swim to the shore if that boat sinks in this part of the ocean
21. Telling random strangers “where you have been”, “where you are from” or “where you are going” for the thousands time everytime you arrive somewhere (starting to use all your different personalities to spice it up a bit).
22. building your nutrition around crackers and coca cola for days
23. Sand…everywhere ! all the time ! Forever !
24. Reading reviews
25. not reading reviews