Everything I learned in a year of traveling
A girl, her two backpacks, and hopefully some useful information.
It’s crazy to think that I have been traveling for over a whole year at this point. Not that it feels like a quick weekend getaway, no, in fact it feels like I’ve been traveling a lot longer than a year. But still, a year is a big milestone to be hopping around with no real tether to anywhere.
At first, the plan was only to travel for a year before returning back home to “real life.” But once you start moving, it’s hard to stop, and now I don’t really have an end date set in stone. I guess I will come back when I get tired of it, or when I run out of money, whichever happens first. But at least for now, I’ll keep going until something pulls me back.
I recently visited my family in Zimbabwe, and they were so excited to hear about my travels as of late. After stories about the travel mishaps, my favorite things I’ve seen and eaten, they all asked the same question: “So what have you learned during this time?” Honestly, before they asked I hadn’t put too much thought into the question. So, when they did ask, I didn’t have the best answers for them.
Since then, the question has stayed on my mind. Surely I must have learned something about the world, or at least about myself, during this past year. After much scribbling in my journal, I can confirm that I have learned at least a few things while traveling.
To all my family members who asked, and to everyone else who didn’t ask but was wondering, or wasn’t, here is an incomplete list of everything I learned this past year traveling. I hope this inspires you in some way or another.
How to use public transportation.
This one might seem kind of silly to those of you who have good public transportation systems, but where I live it barely exists. At my university, we had the Wolfline buses, but that wasn’t even a city-wide system. It was basically a loop between campus buildings and apartment complexes. I went from that to landing in London, and suddenly there was this enormous underground web of trains and buses, all moving in a way that I didn’t understand. I was terrified of it being too hard to understand or messing it all up.
So I took an Uber.
The first few times using the Tube, I spent arguably too long standing inches away from the map, trying to understand anything from the convoluted diagram. And then eventually you learn. It just gets easier. You get on the wrong train once or twice and realize its not the end of the world. You just get off and switch.
And now, I feel like a pro. I can navigate the polished transport systems with my eyes closed. Even if I have to wait 30 minutes for a bus stuck in Istanbul traffic, or working with Morocco’s nonexistent time table, I can get from A to B.
What you learn from public transport isn’t logistics, it’s confidence. Knowing you can easily get yourself across a city (even if it takes the whole day), or even country, the world feels not so huge.
You don’t need that much to be happy.
I know. You don’t need to say it. You’ve heard this one before. Yeah me too, a lot. And most of the time, they probably mean well while saying it. They come back from visiting people with less means than them and then go on and on about how “happy everyone was despite having so little,” and then step back into their lives and homes overflowing with shit as if nothing ever happened.
That’s not what I mean when I say you don’t need that much to be happy. I quite literally carry everything I own in two backpacks: one 40-liter, one 25-liter. Clothes, too many notebooks, toiletries, laptop, my kobo <3, other gadgets, first aid kit, snacks. And you know what? It’s enough, sometimes more than enough.
In a year of outfit repeating, I have confirmed that happiness does not depend on what you have. What you have (regardless of whether you’re limited on capacity) should be vetted often to determine if it actually makes a positive impact on your life. And if it doesn’t, you don’t need it. Considering I literally have to carry it all, I spend a lot of time deciding if I actually use the items and if it is worth the weight on my back.
Some places aren’t as scary as we’re taught.
Before traveling, I heard a lot of warnings: “Don’t go there, it’s unsafe.” “Watch your back.” “Stay out of those neighborhoods.” And to be clear, yes—safety matters. Some advice is worth listening to. But I’ve learned that many “unsafe” places are mostly unsafe in reputation, and they’re everywhere. Not just in the unfamiliar countries. Obviously, everywhere you should be smart: don’t go out alone at night, don’t be flashy with your valuables, be aware of your surroundings. But, for the most part, if you stick to the basic safety rules, you should be safe.
For example, when I told people I was heading to Morocco. I definitely got a lot of eyebrow raises from that one. But in reality, it was one of the friendliest, most respectful and welcoming countries I’ve been to. Was it chaotic? Yes. Did I get catcalled? A few times. Were there scams? Most definitely. But dangerous? Not really, at least I never felt unsafe.
There is just a bit of a balance. You need to be cautious, but you have to remember that people live in these places and go about their lives daily, so there has to be some semblance of safety within a country. And you can’t let your fear, or anyone else’s fear get in the way of a fantastic adventure. As long as you are able to stay smart and know your boundaries, almost anywhere is capable of being a fantastic experience. After all, my top three places that I’ve visited so far just so happen to be the top three places that I was scared to visit due to reputation.
You’re not going to “find yourself” by traveling.
A lot of people head over to Europe and backpack for the summer in hopes of finding themselves. The truth is they wont. Traveling isn’t some magical cure all where you find yourself. In fact, maybe its the opposite. Traveling can easily bring out the worst parts of who you already are.
Self discovery takes a lot of hard work, reflection, therapy, conversations, writing and growth. And it is NOT going to happen solely because you backpacked Europe. Sure, you might have more time to think and be by yourself, but you’d have even more time if you were just unemployed.
That’s not to say you wont grow as a person. You will definitely learn some skills, for example directionality and how to make friends, and yeah, you might change a bit. But there’s not going to be some overnight switch where suddenly you’re unrecognizable to your friends and you’ve suddenly “found yourself.” Long term traveling is a great thing to do to learn some skills, and to dive headfirst into independence, but it is not going to solve any problems in your life without some serious work.
Traveling long term is financially doable.
One of the questions I’m asked most about traveling (other than what have I learned) is “How are you affording all of this?!” The truth is I’m not spending that much money. Long-term travel doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, it can be cheaper than living at home if you’re strategic.
Before leaving, Jordan and I saved up for a year. We sold all of our stuff, ended our leases, left our cars with family. That gave us some wiggle room. On top of that, I found a remote, part-time job that brings in about $300 a month. Not much, but enough to stretch the savings.
But all of that would mean nothing though if you weren’t smart with your traveling. I really wanted to extend the life of my money, so I have been traveling like I’m broke. That means as much as possible not paying for my accommodation (housesitting sites and volunteering sites like World Packers are great for this). With World Packers I have been able to stay in some pretty amazing places for free, with just a bit of a work exchange, and sometimes they even give you free food. I think of my 13 months traveling, I haven’t paid for accommodation for six of them, and didn’t pay for food for three of them. Another way to stretch your money is cooking at home as much as possible, even though you want to try all of the local foods, once you’ve gotten a taste of it, it is usually better to cook at home with local ingredients — just as authentic in my opinion.
And location matters. Europe is beautiful but expensive, there’s simply no way that I would financially be able to travel this long if I was just in Europe (not to mention the visa limits). You could easily blow $1000 a week in Europe, and I don’t think I spent even close to that for three months in Morocco. For sure, I was doing it the cheap way. I mostly did work exchanges for accommodation, I took long buses that made me sick, and I cooked most of my food (or got it for free), but I loved every second of it, and it allowed me to travel for longer, so its a win!
Again on money, dont stress on it too much.
This might sound contradictory, considering I just told you all the ways I save money. But here’s the thing: obsessing over every cent will ruin your trip.
Sometimes you’ll pay too much for a taxi, or you’ll buy something at a market and realize later you could’ve bargained harder. My advice? Just let it go. If the price still feels fair to you, it’s fine. That money probably means a lot more to the seller than it does to you.
Same with little splurges. If you see something you love and it fits in your backpack, buy it. If you want to try a fancy meal one night, do it. Stretch your money where it counts, but don’t strangle your joy over a few extra dollars.
It’s all about balance. You save money here and there, while also giving yourself the freedom to do what you want. Traveling is supposed tom be fun and stressing over every single transaction will only burn you out.
You can’t see it all.
Maybe the most freeing travel lesson of all: you’ll never see it all. Not in one city, not in one lifetime. Think about your own hometown. Have you eaten at every restaurant? Visited every park? Attended every event? Of course not. So why pressure yourself to “do it all” while traveling?
Even if somehow you were able to see everything while traveling, at some point it would all just blend together and lose its significance. After a long while of seeing the gorgeous buildings and magnificent palaces of Europe, they start to all just become buildings. More than once I’ve had to remind myself to see the place with fresh eyes. If I had just stepped off the plane how every single building facade would be the coolest thing every to me.
Now, instead of trying to squeeze everything in, I just pick a few things that excite me and center my plan around that!
So what have I learned after a year of travel? Not that the world is simple, or that I suddenly have it all figured out. It doesn’t even feel like I’ve learned that much, not enough for a 2,000 word essay anyways.
The thing is, everyone thinks travel is this big huge thing, especially people from the States. And it’s not. My life is so unserious. It could be boring, but it’s fun because I like it and it’s easy. It’s not about learning things, or finding myself, or checking boxes off the “what I’ve seen list.” It’s about missing buses, making the Italians at the hostel cook you pasta, forming friendships in random places, eating ice cream every night from the corner store, and realizing everything I need is in my backpack.
And no, I don’t know how long I’ll keep traveling. Maybe another year, maybe more. But what I do know is that I’ve had the most amazing experience this past year, and I want nothing more than for everyone to experience this at least once in their lives. You don’t need unlimited money, or superhuman bravery, or any reason at all. You just need to take the first step. The rest, you’ll figure out along the way.
thanks for reading
xx abby
Loved reading this one!! So true about stuff...and public transport.....and safety...and everything!! Xx
happy that you are happy. Killing the game. Love you