I’m a guy from a third world country, Brazil, to be more specific. It’s the first time that I’m writing anything in English, so, please, bear with me.
I wasn’t a “travel guy”. I’m not saying that a didn’t enjoy traveling, but I almost never thought of it, unless if my vacation was near.
Back then, I had traveled to some cities in my country, that was lovely, but hasn’t triggered the intense need to travel, yet.
Some of this trips i were too young and the other one was my honeymoon. It was far more special because of my wife was there, being my wife then any other external factor.
One day, KLM released a promotion that the price to travel to Amsterdam was far lower than the usual one.
I had no money saved for that matter, nor my wife. But, at the moment we saw the price, we knew it was the opportunity we needed to make our first trip to Europe.
I don’t know you, that is reading this, but in my country, it isn’t common to travel abroad. My grandfather was the only one in my family that went outside the country, counting just the close relatives, but he worked for a television, and was just filming, not on a leisure.
So we bought the tickets and suddenly I felt a spark in my heart. I have never been so anxious about anything, except my wedding, perhaps.
But, as a saying here in Brazil, joy is short-lived in a poor man’s house (alegria de pobre dura pouco), and the price of the tickets was a mistake of the company. It took three days for the company decide what to do with the people that bought the tickets, after all it was cheap, but not impractical for the company.
In the end, KLM decided to honor the tickets, and my trip was booked successfully. After some pleasant discussion we, me and my wife, decided to go the Amsterdam and Paris.
The trip was a one of a lifetime experience, but the feeling that you get searching for places to visit, the waiting for the date and even the airport, was a big part of it. I think that the fact that we can’t live that so easily, make it even better.
And then, it happened. When I was back, I could only thing of traveling. I kept following travel sites, reading about different locations and search for bargains, to travel again. I even started making some bots to search automatically for some promotions out there (it’s not even close to being done yet).
It isn’t easy to keep up with the yearn to travel, that is inside of me. Not having that much money to go whenever I have the opportunity, it isn’t great, but now, traveling certainly is one of our priorities and we keep saving money for that.
I already made another trip to Europe, to Italy this time, with a couple of friends, and it made the flame become bigger, not smaller.
My conclusion is that travel is an addictive experience. I can’t imagine myself not wanting to be out there in the world, seeing other people, hearing other languages, eating other foods, living elsewhere. I do enjoy feeling that.
Our next goal is Japan. Unfortunately we’re not even close to afford this travel. But we keep dreaming.
I always thought that this excitement came from the experiment itself, of being out there. Now, I look back and I’m certain that it’s not just that.
The main factor that made it special is experimenting the world with a pleasant company, in my case, my amazing wife.
When you read about all this people traveling alone, most of the time, they say it’s amazing because you can get to know people.
So it’s also about us, people. Whether it’s a new guy you just met or your beloved one. Being out there, in a different situation, feeling everything new, like a child, and with a nice company, that’s my definition of traveling. That’s why it’s impossible not to become addicted to that.
So now, I’ll keep making my bots that tell me when there’s a good promotion and waiting to have money again to get in an airplane and be somewhere, with my lovely wife.