What are the most popular posts on Facebook? Basically: weddings, beautiful people… And travel. Share a travel photo and you'll get more attention than on your birthday!
So it's no wonder there are so many travel freaks - it's so easy to get distracted and forget the problems you should really be dealing with. 1
In 2013, I tried to travel for a whole month.
I wanted to travel around my native Kaunas (and discover its undiscovered places) and around Lithuania for 30 days in a row. Because simply buying a tour of Malaysia would be uninteresting - anyone can do that. I traveled without a penny in my pocket.
True, I started the travel month with a week in Turkey, where I had fun thanks to the winning ticket and couchsurfing.
...I realized before the end of the month that I hate traveling.
Here's what I experienced this month…
01 - 08 days.
My girlfriend at the time found a competition - write a story about what you will do in Turkey and win flight tickets! 2 I wrote the story, she sent it. We won! 3
It's been a weird week because we broke up on the first day, "I'm sorry Daniel, but I slept with someone else, so let's end this thing."
When your longest-lasting breaks down 4 relationship, it's probably no wonder you're doing nothing but rolling your teary eyes and eating the most unhealthy food for the next few days. That's what I did.
After about 4 days I recovered.
I traveled from Alanya to Pamukkale, then back. On the way, I was riding in the car of a non-English-speaking Turk, I got a little lost, I took pictures.
...That region of Turkey resembles Palanga. Just a little warmer and more noise. But anyway, the same culturally cheap entertainment, including beaches, bars, night clubs, but interesting tourist attractions.
09 - 10 days.
After returning, I went with my friends to canoe through the rivers of Aukštaitija. It's so much fun, especially when you've just broken up!
During the swim, I realized that putting things in plastic garbage bags and tying them tightly is a must. That is, if you don't want to catch rabbits swimming down the river. 5
Day 11.
Finally back home 6 I found out that until Friday I stay at home to feed the animals and plants, while my parents leave for Juodkrantė and take a year's vacation.
That's what I did.
Please, cat, food. Tomato, please, turtle. Please, tomato, water, before you get eaten by a turtle. Kitty, don't eat the turtle.
However, these days I also traveled. With my friend Jurgita, I took part in a water fight at Panemune beach and later visited Linkuva's mansion in Šilainiai.
…Loved the water battle. The mansion is not. The latter not only because we did not see the beauty of the mansion described on the Internet, 7 but we were also given a murderous look by the local babulka.
By the way, the cemetery is nothing special either, although it was described as beautiful. It turns out that it is not worth trusting everyone who describes their travels on the Internet. 8
Day 12.
I visited with the same friend Kaunas Čiurlionis Museum. Music, paintings and meditations. Liked it! 9 Not all museums in Lithuania are so cool, but visiting them is interesting because every time it is an adventure.
Day 13.
Today I traveled to Girionii in Kaunas district. Search for Geocaching treasures where there really isn't a shortage of them. I found even 20 per square kilometer!
Geocaching can be done alone, with friends, or with children.
Day 14.
Today I went to a cafe that I have wanted to visit for a long time. 10I drink green bean coffee that smells like pea soup and tastes like tea and nut syrup. Interesting.
I try it together Workstation Popcorn working method. It works partially - I'm still writing in the diary. I guess it would have worked even better if I had come in knowing what I wanted to work on.
…day 15 and others???
Unfortunately, this is where the blog stops.
I realized I was just bored. And in general…
...I realized that I hate fast travel.
I traveled before. With parents in Lithuania, Portugal and Crete; with the former after Kos and Sardinia; with students around Berlin; with my cousin around Amsterdam. And I traveled alone - by car around Lithuania and Latvia.
But, most holy! It chokes.
Sincerely. I understand that all you have to do is travel to Asia or follow the Way of Santiago and the news portals will find such stories. I would become famous! 11 Still, I can sense why such stories are interesting.
After all, it's fun to fantasize about how I got up without moving my legs.
But try to move. You may find that some trips tire you. However, these come in two types:
- Horizontal. You travel quickly, widely, through countries, cities, people, airports - as many points as possible to your "I've been here" list!
- Vertical. You travel slowly. You come to the museum and spend the day there. You go to one cafe for a month. You don't just go to another city, you live in it. Feel it!
I can't say that one type is better than the other. Just…
My type of travel: Vertical travel.
I have been living in Kaunas for 25 years and some villager asks "What is there to do in this village?" - I wonder. This village has so much goodness, people, places, new interesting things that it is difficult to describe everything! 12
I lived in the Czech city of Brno for 5 full months. They urged me to go at least to Prague or other places in the Czech Republic. I followed those calls. I spent these months in the city and loved it!
I travel the same way now.
When I like a new place in Kaunas, I visit it for about 3 months, until I get to know not only the baristas, but also hear conversations about their profitability, places to be repaired, types of toilet paper...
Basically, I'm like a very slow spy. I enjoy listening to other people's stories, delving into them. 13 Then I realize that we all basically have the same problems and dreams.
Beata Tiškevič also talks about vertical trips. 14 which posts on this topic I can no longer find, 15 so I asked you to tell me by message.
Here's what she says:
…Maybe you don't like fast trips either?
Plus: Isn't travel an escape from yourself, just like alcohol and self-help books?
I already told you - personal development is masturbation, if you have been improving yourself without understanding in which direction you are moving. Just because you read a book on how to build a good business doesn't mean you will build a business.
It is likely that you already have the knowledge, but you are afraid to apply it.
And travel... Isn't it sometimes running?
In Sandra Bernotaitė's book "The Beard of Dionysus" 16 is the character Kostas, 17 who, pressed by adversity, dreams of traveling from his hometown. Poet Darja Lyzenko, 18 claims that travel is just another method of running away from oneself… 19
Lithuanian blogger Strelka 20 says:
A fugue is an obsession with travel, accompanied by the loss of some part of memory and identity. <…>
Without even delving into extreme pathologies, one can see a direct connection between the inability to stay in a normal physical place and one's own skin. Since it is extremely difficult to escape from the fur, one engages in a compensatory strategy of <…> changing the environment and searching for new stimuli.
John O'Donohue <…> says: “many problems arise from our inability to sit still in a room. Peace is vital to the soul world."
From Strelka's article "Journey to the land of loneliness".
By the way, I recommend the whole her article. 21
So the question arises - why do we travel? To discover or to escape? Which type of travel would you like?
Quit traveling,
Travel, like clubbing or constantly devouring books, is an escape from your nagging questions. It's running away from your fears. I'm not saying it's bad, but I don't think we should always run.↩
Through the cheapest airline, of course.↩
Of course, she wrote it off as her achievement: "You wouldn't have traveled anywhere without me!". Basically true.↩
About a year. Then it was the longest. Ha.↩
Down the river, down the river/Plafk floats smoothly...↩
Yes, I was 22 and still living with my parents. I wasn't rich enough to move out when I was 18.↩
There were only plastic windows and crumbling roofs. Welcome to the Forgotten Mansion.↩
*Costels.*↩
Maybe because I like Čiurlionis' works. After all, even at this moment, I am listening VL317 of the Čiurlionis "Jūros" cycle of small landscapes. 🙂 ↩
"Green Cafe", Kaunas, Laisvės aleja. And here is the ad because I liked it there.↩
Wooooo! Danger to home, relatives and reduced chance of finding a sincere partner! Who wouldn't want that?↩
Magazines "Kaunas is full of culture" and Nemunas trying But they are not enough.↩
Pablo Picasso is said to have behaved similarly - he was a real cannibal of human stories.↩
Don't you know yet? She is one of the most active Lithuanian activists!↩
Thanks, Facebook, your search box isn't working. Beata told about it in the summer of 2017.↩
Which, by the way, I recommend. I loved her style!↩
Gay designer looking for a partner, mother hates him because he's gay.↩
Do not confuse with Belka!↩
In general, Strelka is one of the best Lithuanian bloggers. To the best self-improvement authors won't be included because it's not about self-improvement, but it's definitely worth paying attention to.↩