22 countries. 9% of the world. I feel like a child going out to play, like an addict wanting to see more of this beautiful entity called Earth.
I am fully aware that the stamps on my passport, or the few days I spend in one place equals to a mere single footprint versus the whole walk. Same thing, when someone tells me “Oh! I’ve been to Greece! I spent 2 days in Athens (I LOVED the Parthenon!) and then Mykonos and Santorini. Your country is SO beautiful and the food is so tasty!” Of course I will smile and nod and appreciate their experience. But I feel like one of the luckiest people in the world knowing Greece the way I do. And I’m pretty sure if I ask my foreign friends, they would have something similar to say about their own home.
I am also painfully aware that I am viewed and handled as a tourist by the majority of locals, and therefore I am not shown the truth behind closed doors. I was able to get real glimpses only in a handful of places, and that was mostly when I stayed at people’s homes, or I was taken under someone’s wing. For instance, I had what the local men drink in Chitwan, Nepal (a foggy clear sweet alcoholic drink, sadly I didn’t write down the name), and I’ve seen little private beaches in Hawaii. I’ve had my own private tour guide in Hong Kong (a French guy on his day off, excited to see another European in the city he moved at years ago) and I had amazing conversations about everything -mostly politics- in Cuba and Istanbul.
I’ve also had terrible touristy experiences, ones that built a wall between me and the authenticity of the local every day life, or even a place that I was longing to see, but being part of a group meant touristy activities. Blah. I hate, hate, hate tours. But sometimes it’s the only way to do things, especially when you’re on a budget. My most recent example is from Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia. I did so much research to see if I could rent my own car to visit this spectacular and unique place, and 1. it wasn’t recommended because there really aren’t any signs for directions in the middle of the dessert, and 2. renting a car was too expensive, probably because of no.1. So I did the tour and damn was it not what I wanted! Don’t get me wrong, I saw incredible places that I don’t think I would’ve known to visit by myself, and I heard many interesting facts from our tour guide, but everything was so rushed! There was always somewhere to go and something else to see, and we were always on a time crunch. It just didn’t do it justice.
In order to understand a place, let alone a whole country, just visiting for a few weeks is never enough. It only makes sense that I will be treated like a tourist when I choose to stay in one place for just a few days! I want to see myself as a traveler, one who collects valuable experiences from each place, cherishing and sharing them with others with the only purpose being to understand a bit more about…Life.
There are several billion ways to live. We are all walking on the same rock, traveling through space. I don’t want to know everything. I just want to know myself. In the reflection of this experience called life, I keep rediscovering who I am, and who I want to be.