Backpacker Chats Opinion Pieces

Being a travel enthusiast and writer in a pandemic

I haven’t posted anything for a while because it’s hard to know what to write. My favourite topics are food and travel. The two things this blog is about and the two topics I can’t talk about as much because we are so restricted in our travel during lockdown.

Travel

I’ve decided, one bottle of Porto Portuguese wine later, that I may start posting in the traditional blog format again; for now, while I’m restricted to my local parks. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for the accessible nature nearby. I love my daily walks… I became so desperate at one point to create content that I thought I could write an article about top 5 spots to walk in London… but I didn’t because at the moment that would feel like selling out, and for what gain? Poor quality writing, time consuming and it’s not like I make money off of my blog. No, I wanted to strip it down.

Right back to how I would type while I was living in Italy.

Banana tree - travel

Here are my thoughts for today: Find something you love, and do it every day and when that’s not enough, find something else, something that puts your soul on fire, makes you feel like you have magic in your veins, tie that something to the betterment of other people and you have a winner.

Life is hard. Everyone’s life is hard. It’s all perspective, despite where we are at in our journeys. We all suffer, we all love and we all die. The way we react to suffering, the way we show or love, those are defining.

Travel Blossom

I’ve gone off on a tangent… but I wanted to talk about why I struggle to have a break these days. Travel is my break. It makes me breathe easy, makes me remember that I am a little pin in a huge world, the world does not revolve around me, but man, when you’re at home, glued to your phone or the TV, or what you can do to make your life more fun in a lockdown, the world feels like it revolves around you and I believe that’s dangerous. I believe it is unhealthy. Travel brings perspective, people, cultures and experiences back to us. It helps me relax and breathe.

Travel lockdown walk

Yes, filling my calendar full of activity and other countries may not sound relaxing to some, but I guarantee you there are a whole bunch of people out there who feel the same as me; they are out there. I met many of them on my travels, living abroad. My technique isn’t unique or odd, it’s a known skill, to relax by filling your life with experiences and people and other countries. I reckon it’s an art.

I’ve been concentrating on Book 3. Book 3 is travel; it’s beauty in the world around us, it’s about finding our way when we have no alternative. It’s about losing what you know of yourself and finding it in the kindness of strangers. Book 3 is epitomises, for me, what travel was before this pandemic.

I can’t wait to share my words with you.

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