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“One travels to run away from routine, that dreadful routine that kills all imagination and all our capacity for enthusiasm.” – Ella Maillart
Heya All, Welcome to another post. Hope you’re all doing well whatever it is that you’re doing.
Along the lines of our recent travel, I just quickly wanted to share these 3 takeaways I had after visiting parts of Europe. There are definitely more but to cater to the ADDs out there, including me, I had to narrow it down to just 3 🙂
WE APPRECIATE WHAT WE HAVE
All 3 of us were excited to explore Paris, London, Venice and Rome. We couldn’t wait.
The first leg of our trip was Paris, the city of lights. It was rainy most of the days we were in Paris; I guess winter time in December was supposed to be like that.
Let me just say that my expectations and reality didn’t quite align.
In my mind’s eye, I envisioned like a movie set. Don’t get me wrong, the history and architecture of Paris and the other sites we visited just blew us away; we saw 10th-century buildings and roads which to this day were habitable and still elegant, artifacts, antiquities, and the history is just so much to absorb in just a few weeks.
I guess the surprise for me was that in spite of the grandeur of these locations, they had the same problems like trash everywhere and homelessness in the streets. I live in LA and I’m pretty much used to this same issue, but for some reason, I wasn’t prepared to see the same problem in the streets of Paris, London and even Rome.
At any rate, I really came to understand and appreciate what we have in the US as Americans. Among them were;
- Gas prices in Europe are among the highest in the world, it’s bad enough in LA where the average is $3.15/gallon but in the EU, since they pay by the liter, with average cost of EU1.75/liter, it comes to about $8/gallon, when I got back I stopped complaining at the pump.
- Sales tax in London and Paris are among the highest in the world, in London there’s a 20% tax (and that’s in Pounds mind you), levied on most purchases; the same tax rates apply to the EU where 20% is the rate but a reduced rate for food, medicine, etc. Again, I live in LA where the local tax is the highest in the nation but even the 9.75% pales in comparison to the 20% in Europe.
- Security. Most of the touristy places we visited were teeming with pickpockets and suspicious looking folks, and one needs to ask, why on earth would local authorities still allow these to happen? You’d think that just the mere embarrassment of being a pickpocket capital of the world would move a City, a Country to make changes, but sadly, why not??? I don’t get it?
You see signs for safety; watch out for pickpockets, etc. I even had a run in with a gang of 3 where I was surrounded inside the train on our way to Paris, but since I was aware of the situation, looked the people in the faces and turned away from the point person whose hands started to reach for my pockets (they even knew where my wallet was since I wore it in my front pocket and the guy straightaway was trying to reach out for it), I had to turn a few times blocking with my backpack, just to avoid the stupid grab.
I was like dude seriously, as I was staring at the dude’s face (he was mumbling in French) and I was turning to face another way and looking at his other cohorts but still moving; it only stopped on the next station as the idiots got off, shaking their heads.
That was the disappointment I had with the whole European thing, the safety issue, which for the most part wouldn’t happen if we were in the US.
Those were the major shocks that got me while there, and because of these, I’m really grateful for what we have. But it isn’t an excuse not to visit, we’re even planning a return to celebrate our ‘debt free’ journey once we’re paid off, but all these to remind would-be visitors that it is what it is in Europe so be prepared and be aware 🙂
WE SEE HOW OTHER PEOPLE AND CULTURES LIVE
One of the hallmarks of Europeans is that they’re not in a hurry. They take their time, enjoy whatever moments they’re in, and just let life happen.
Here in the US, we’re pretty much accustomed to ‘productivity’, how to maximize our time and be more efficient. We’re so driven and success oriented, well most Americans are, that we most always trade up time for money.
That’s exactly the premise of the book ‘Your Money or Your Life’ where the authors remind us that we work for money in return for giving up our ‘Life Essence’. And I guess Europeans are aware of that and for the most part choose to enjoy their life essence, and not trade it for money.
I came to realize that there’s a novelty in that attitude and that as Americans, most of us should learn to live life and not ‘earn’ it.
Of course we can get on a success wagon and get try to get there as quickly as possible and then enjoy, but what if? What if on our chase for the ‘cheese’ something happens? Life happens? Did we enjoy or spend significant time with our loved ones that we won’t regret looking back in those ‘what if’ moments?
For me and my family, yes we chose to be in our journey and will try to get there to be able to enjoy quicker, but we’re also are aware that Life can change in an instant, so while we’re journeying, we choose to enjoy each other’s company, create precious moments that can’t be measured by cash, and just live life like it’s our last day. There’s a value to it that’s immeasurable and the payoff is of course not immediate, but when life indeed happens, and it will; at least we’ve built up our ‘lifelong memories’ reserves that all the cash in the world will seem to be worthless in comparison, so that when time comes to look back and measure where we spent our most precious resource, our ‘time’, we won’t be disappointed.
For this reason, I’m grateful to have seen how Europeans live and be given the chance to consider the more important things in living and spending life.
WE ARE INSPIRED TO IMPROVE
Travel is a great teacher, that’s why at every opportunity I’d always encourage people to get out more often and travel.
I can only speak from personal experience and so far, ever since we can remember as a family, whenever we got on a trip and got back, we tend to remember a positive trait we experienced and apply that to how we live our daily lives.
We traveled to Singapore a few times and noticed that citizens were extremely disciplined. We then learned how one man, Lee Kwan Yew the Father of Singapore and its first Prime Minister architected this change in one lifetime, turning the small island nation from old world to first world.
This inspired me as the leader of my family to also lead by example, to be disciplined in work ethic, care and nurturing of my family so everyone gets on the same page, and ever since that trip, we never looked back. We run our household efficiently and manage our time to make sure we spend quality time as well as quantity and we’ve never been healthier as a family since then.
Just this past month when we traveled to Europe and experienced firsthand how people valued relationships and quality time rather than busyness; it inspired our family to relax more and not be so hurried. We realized that time well spent with each other and loved ones is more important than trying to earn a living and pursue ‘stuff’. We now acknowledge that our most precious asset is ‘time’ and once we spend it we can never get it back, and so now we’ve learned to spend it wisely.
There are other examples of how we experienced positive qualities that inspired us to make better changes to how we lived as a family; and had we never travel, we’d never had the chance to experience these life-changing traits.
All that to say, travel can definitely inspire and spark changes in us for the good, so keep seeking out new experiences through travel, you’d be better for it.
WRAPPING UP
Now I realize why travel is expensive.
Sure there’s great expense involved money wise, but the cost can also be the other way around. If we sit and do nothing, go nowhere, we save money for sure; but the ‘missed opportunity’ of not experiencing what you can by not traveling can also be detrimental to our emotional and mental health. It’s the same financial term as ‘opportunity cost’ where if you don’t invest here, you’re investing somewhere else, and can also be inversely true, when you’re not investing, then you’re not earning. It’s a missed opportunity.
Knowledge can be gained through different means, and travel is only part, but the opportunity of delving in with all our 5 senses into experiencing places, people, cultures, and food are too great to pass up.
So go ahead, dream, plan, take steps, and then plunge into exploration.
It really is a big world out there, it’s up to you to experience it and make yourself better for it.
Do you have other tips and inspiring lessons related to travel? please do share by commenting below.
Until the next post….
Peace and Blessing to you All.
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