“The great difference between voyages rests not with the ships, but with the people you meet on them.”
Apparently this is a quote by Amelia E. Barr. Don’t know her, but I needed a title.
In my opinion, travelling is 40% about the country, 30% about yourself and 30% about the other people. This can be the people you meet on the way, your travel companions or the absence of it. If the people you travel with straight out suck, this can influence the whole experience. Should it? Maybe not. But in the end.. How often are we NOT influenced in any way by the people surrounding us. Or not surrounding is. And I don’t think this is my inner psychologist talking.I am someone who likes to be around people. I don’t necessarily need to interact with them, but just being surrounded by them is already enough. However, there are also a lot of times when I prefer to be alone as for me it can improve an experience.Here are 5 travel-situations that were significantly influenced by the presence or absence of people.
1. Basically every childhood vacation in the south of France.When you’re 10, a lot of things seem more interesting than visiting old towns, culinary restaurants or going for long walks. Seriously – A LOT. Until I was about 14, we would spend 3 weeks of every summer camping in the south of France. Me and my sisters always looked forward to that. At the time it was not because of the cute town or amazing nature surrounding the area (“we have trees in our garden and what on earth is supposed to be so interesting about some old bricks”). My parents did always pick amazing places to stay – but that was only partly why we wanted to go. It was partly because of the fact that we could sleep in a tent and partly because of the great swimming pool. But mostly, it was because we knew we’d meet other children who would become our best friends for the next 3 weeks. And we did – every year. They were always Dutch – so many people from the Netherlands going to France! – and always about our age. During our stay, all of our parents would actually start planning their day trips on the same day so there wouldn’t be that much nagging and crying around when we’d leave to take a trip. Because, you know, when the other ones weren’t at the camping, what were we supposed to do anyway?We always stayed in touch for a while after the vacation but in times of non-existence of social media, it fades, of course. Except for that one year when 3 families agreed on going back to the same place around the same time.
2. A day trip to a valley in the Swiss alps.The Swiss Alps are absolutely breathtaking. A while ago I took a day trip to the Meiringen region. I wanted to visit a Canyon and afterwards a Valley. I arrived at the Canyon and it was absolutely stunning. The further I proceeded, the more people I encountered. Adults, grumpy teenagers and small children running around. It was just too much and ruined the experience of this incredible piece of nature. I fled out of there and continued my way to the valley of Rosenlaui. There I could walk through another, even more spectacular, glacier canyon. And I was all by myself. It was perfect. The silence of the forest and then the loudness of the water crashing on stone and shaping its way through it. There was no better to enjoy this spectacle than in the complete and utter silence of the absence of other humans.
3. New Year’s Evening at Galapagos.The whole Galapagos trip had been a perfect combination of meeting new people and being able to do things on my own. New Years Eve was the same – but even more memorable. On the 31st of January I had spent my day snorkeling at the harbour of Isabela island and biking to a lagoon with flamingos. The 1st of January I had planned a trip to Los Tuneles to swim with penguins, Sharks and giant sea turtles. Those plans had made sure I didn’t mind not having a special New Year’s Eve to celebrate with my friends. I decided to go out and buy myself an expensive dinner (rice with something coconut) and then maybe watch the fireworks or go to sleep. I really didn’t mind. But my plans changed when I ran into someone I had met earlier that day during snorkeling. He invited me to spend the evening with his friends at the local bar (the only bar on the island). After a while suddenly everyone had to go do something and I was left alone with one of his friends. Who was, to be honest, verry cute. Anyway, we started talking and went to the beach. He was from another island and couldn’t spend the evening with his family since he was working. We had known each other about an hour and somehow ended up spending the midnight countdown together. On a night where I was all alone on an island in the middle of the pacific ocean, thousands of miles away from my family, It felt like we had been friends forever and I can honestly say – paradise-like island or not – he’s the one who made that New Year’s Evening the most memorable I’ve ever had.
4. A certain citytrip.
I can’t say where it was, because of privacy reasons, but it was straight out the most horrible trip of my life. I originally planned to go by myself, which, in the end, would have been way better. I ended up going with some people I had a mutual friend with, but didn’t know that well. I can’t give any details, but the 3-day trip mostly consisted of either one person yelling at the other ones and picking fights, gossiping behind each others back or giving someone the silent treatment. The city was gorgeous, but I have no good memories about this trip and was never so happy to return home.
5. London.
One of my trips to London was with my 2 sisters, my best friend and my best friend’s 2 sisters to visit the Harry Potter Studios.. We all get along very well and this is a trip we still talk about every time we get together. I love arranging everything, so everyone agreed that I could book the hostel, plan our itinerary and basically take the lead during those 2 days.
Day 1, 9am: we arrive in London and decide to go look for Platform 9 3/4 in King’s Cross
9.15 am: we haven’t found it, but we don’t care, we’re overly excited, laughing, making jokes etc.
9.20 am: 3 of us are on the escalator, going down a level. My sister calls us to come back because she found something. In all of our excitement, we don’t know any better than run up the escalator that is moving down. Have you ever tried this? Don’t do it. I fell. On my knee. It hurt so bad that I almost passed out. Note that, we had been in London for exactly TWENTY minutes and I was supposed to be “the leader of the group” – WELL DONE. I said I was fine and managed to walk through London for a whole day – until at 5pm the pain had become unbearable. My best friend immediately took charge. We went to a hospital and spent THREE hours waiting in the emergency room. I felt so bad that everyone was stuck there because of me. After three hours and several X-rays, I apparently only could take some pain killers and rest. By that time it was already 9pm and we hadn’t eaten anything yet. Fortunately we found a McDonald’s nearby. I NEVER eat McDonald’s – I don’t like it. But that was the best meal in my life. Despite all of the bad luck and hours of waiting I put everyone through, we somehow still had an amazing time and we all agree that this was one of the best trips all of us ever took. The best example of how your travel company can make or break the whole experience.
