The Art of Travel

What does it mean to leave home and travel the world?
What will you gain and what will you learn?
Can you expect to come home a changed person? 
The answers are of course different for every person,
​but if you open yourself up to each day and
each challenge as they occur, you will learn more about yourself 
than about the destinations you travel in.
That is the true art of travel.

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Different points of view
To experience a country fully, meeting the locals is the most important step.
As soon as you arrive in the country, find someone to teach you a few words in the local language. Just a few words will go a long way to encourage people 
to open up and take an interest in you.
By meeting as many local people as you can, you will learn more details about their lives. You will look at your own life and way of living differently, and take home a sense of gratitude for what you have in your life.
Empathy for others is a great gift, and travel gives us this in spades.


Experiences over possessions
One of the greatest lessons travel teaches you is that
experiences are of much more value than possessions.
It proves that you can throw your life into a backpack and survive on very little money. When you get home you will not remember how much you spent on frogs legs in Paris, but you will remember how you felt when you ate it, and what it tasted like.
You become adept at living in the moment, stopping to smell the roses and absorbing atmospheres and scenes. You drink in views with your eyes, notice details you would never normally give a second glance to, and laugh at what to local people would seem mundane, everyday occurrences.


​Getting on with it
Travel teaches you to be adaptable. Things go wrong: public transport isn’t what you expected, hostels forget your booking, you get lost in a big city,
or you lose something valuable.
How you deal with life’s little challenges on the road tells you what kind of character you have. It strengthens you, helps you to be calm and accepting,
and teaches you the things that really matter in life.
You may return home in a much better position to deal with anything life throws at you.
​

Sharing humanity
In spite of the differences in culture, food,
and people’s attitudes
that you may encounter while travelling;
you will gain an understanding that
really we are all the same,
whichever country we were born in.
It is the moments when you find a similarity 
between your culture and another's,
when you share a common connection,
​that are often the most special.
This is what truly changes people who travel,
and this is what drives people’s hunger for more.
​
Realising that we are all one:
one earth, one people, one life.