Rental car with international driver's license: $322
Convertible duffle/backpack: $78
Finally taking the trip you have dreamed about for years: Priceless.
Or is it?
Whenever one branches out and tries something new there are risks involved. Weighing the cost and the payoff of any venture is key to its success and world travel seems to me to be no different. Yes, there are areas of the world where the physical danger is a very real concern due to the civil, political and religious upheaval much of the world is suffering, but one also takes risks when travelling to less violent parts of the world. These risks are not so much concerned with bodily harm or hazards of life and limb, but rather of expectation.
There is a lot of dreaming that happens in the early stages of the planning of a trip. Expectations run high and there is a real danger that the place one is excited to visit exists more in his or her imagination than in reality. It is incredibly easy to invent a world that is prefect, where every detail is exactly how we would have fashioned it, and where everything goes according to plan, and then to superimpose this image onto the places on our itinerary. But when we get there we will have no one to blame but ourself when our destination turns out to be just as real and imperfect as the places we left behind. It's necessary, therefore, to lay down the picture of the destination that's been painted in our own imaginations by films and tourist advertisements, and allow ourselves to board the plane with minds completely open, no less excited for what is in store. That is the price of travel.
It is by being expectant of nothing more than the chance to immerse oneself in the culture and life of a place, by taking every aspect of the journey (not just the destination) for what it is, by rolling with the punches thrown by weather and public transit, and by glorying in the everyday triumphs seen anew in a new setting, that we will be justified in putting a pin in our map. Anything else would be cheating.
It is by being expectant of nothing more than the chance to immerse oneself in the culture and life of a place, by taking every aspect of the journey (not just the destination) for what it is, by rolling with the punches thrown by weather and public transit, and by glorying in the everyday triumphs seen anew in a new setting, that we will be justified in putting a pin in our map. Anything else would be cheating.
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