Travel while you’re young

If you’re reading this, you most likely live in Slovenia and you come from a smaller town. You probably haven’t seen a lot of places. Slovenia is a beautiful country but there are a lot of things that you have to see in person. The sooner you start travelling, the more you will see and more times you will visit that special place that you liked so much. If you travel now, it is also more likely for you to take time for travelling when you have a job. If you will not know what you’re missing, you will not regret not seeing the beautiful places that wait for you. While travelling you will meet different people and cultures. You will make friends even though someone will not look like you or act like you. Meeting different cultures will improve your way of communication and you will quickly gain respect to other languages or even learn one.

Sometimes travelling isn’t easy. You can get robbed, you can lose luggage or get lost in a foreign city. But while you will ask for directions, go to the airport alone or finally figure out how underground railway system work, you will gain confidence. You will soon think: “If I can manage being alone in a foreign city, then I will be ok at home, in a country with my culture and my language.”

It’s true that airplane tickets were expensive in the past, but that isn’t the case now. If you will check airlines websites and other travelling websites where they post cheap plane tickets, you will also buy a cheap plane tickets. Prices can be as low as 10 euros for a round trip in bigger European cities. You mustn’t limit yourself to flights from Slovenia, it is also smart to check flights from airports nearby. There are a lot of special offers during holidays and sales are also available on websites with plane tickets. There are also a lot of coupons available for a discount which also lowers the price of the ticket. Or you can go travelling with a bus or a train which also won’t hurt your wallet.

You never cared for history, geography or learning languages? Travelling will change that. You will learn a lot about history or geography in Versaille or in Machu Picchu. You learn where is a certain place and find out while adventuring around town about its history. It’s the same with languages - in a foreign city, you will have to use some basic expressions in a foreign language or in English. You will enrich your vocabulary and learn something new. If you use the mother tongue of a country that you’re travelling to, the locals will be more available to you and you will experience your travel differently. You will make new contacts and meet the culture from the first hand.

You might’ve already known that but either way: if you travel, you will be happier. That was also confirmed by a research, made in University of Cornwell. They have proven that you will be happier if you spend your money for experience, like for travelling than for materialistic goods. Spending money for a watch, a phone or even for a house will not bring you long term happiness. Visiting a gallery, jumping on a plane or an excellent dinner is a gift for you and makes memories you will never forget. Even bad experience is good for you as you will remember them with smile on your face years after it. Travelling is, at the end, happiness, fear, love, surprise, confusion and all wonderful and less wonderful moments.

Did you always have an excuse that you don’t have a friend you can travel with? Travelling alone is also something special and something you will remember for ever. You never know whom you’ll meet or get to know. You will also make yourself talk to strangers and leave your shyness behind. You will visit places you want to visit and have more time exploring the town on your own conditions. You will become more confident and more independent as you will have to rely on yourself. You will try food that you want to try and focus on things you like. No one is the same and you will travel how you want it if you travel alone. It’s not so lonely as you think.