Adapting a bit more to the traveling lifestyle every day...

We’ve been traveling on this around-the-world adventure now for more than eleven months – never more clear this past week as I tried to interpret the look of horror on my friend’s face as she stared at me in the bathroom. “What on earth are you doing in the sink?”

Visiting us in Italy from Florida for a hard-earned week of her vacation, I don’t think she quite had in mind how we actually lived from day to day. Washing out socks and underwear in the sink every day or so was pretty normal for us – now. It had taken some getting used to, but after thirteen weeks backpacking across eleven countries in Europe, ten weeks living in the Mexican jungle with no electricity or running water, and three months in S. Africa and Kenya breathing side-by-side in the bush with lions, leopards, and elephants; our perspective on traveling has certainly changed.

Wardrobes are now zip-off pants that can do double-duty for those chilly mornings that suddenly turn warm, comfortable t-shirts and shoes made for walking long distances in the cold, wet, and muddy. Haircuts are now with dull, manicure scissors and forget those bushy eyebrows – when you don’t have a mirror, you have no idea how awful you look! But it didn’t used to be that way and our friend was having trouble connecting us with those people she knew before – hands calloused from climbing the corporate ladder, ears permanently disfigured from being stuffed with all manner of Blue-Tooth devices, eyes bloodshot from glaring at the computer – you know the type. That was us.

Now I get wildly excited when we check into a hotel and they have those awesome little soaps and shampoos I used to take for granted. And if there was any use at all that I could find for a shower cap, then I’d be a rich woman! A hostel with clean, fresh sheets beats my fluffy duvet back home any day, because we are TRAVELING! A whole new lifestyle and an entirely different outlook on things from the way “they used to be”.

Traveling will do that to you. It will make you appreciate the smallest things in life…ice in your glass, Mom’s homemade dressing, television in your native language, a genuine smile from behind the counter when you’re struggling to ask directions in a different language, a hot shower…all the things that were so much a part of our lives “before” we forget just how important those little things really are to our psyches.

Our friend was amazed at how adept we’d become at living in a different bed/country/time zone every few days and gave her compliments freely. However, with each event, she kept shaking her head and saying, “I’m glad it’s you guys doing this. I could never be so far from my own bed.”

Our beds have been in tents, hostels, planes, and even ships, but what we’ve learned along the way has been invaluable.
Packing light – we’re still working hard on that one.
Being adaptable to change – because invariably there will be times when your car is held hostage in the garage for seven hours AND the restaurant you’re dying to try is closed for holiday.
Living in the moment – trying hard not to over-plan and simply enjoy what’s happening around you right now.
Laughter – that’s the big one – being able to laugh at the bad weather and put your face up in a great big smile to the sun!

Enjoy your travels – and be prepared for your friends to have no idea who you’ve become!