7 Reasons Why I Hate Traveling
I love traveling, I really do. But there are parts of it that I can’t stand. I have to be honest and say that me and travel have a typical love-hate relationship.
As well as bringing out the ‘best me’, traveling also has a habit of bringing out the ‘worst me’, but no matter how frustrated I get with traveling I need it – it’s like a drug. Once you’ve traveled for more than a few months, you’ll never want to stop (just occasionally get so frustrated you think you want to, but deep inside you know that you don’t).
Here is a list why I love/hate traveling:
1. Waiting: I reckon that you spend at least 25% of your time on the road waiting for something; waiting for the flight to leave, the bus to come or the half an hour delayed train. And if you’re not waiting for the plane, your waiting IN the plane. I know it’s not the destination but the journey that matters, but that can be hard to grasp when sitting in a plane for 16 hours straight.
2. Stressing: Traveling is rarely a balanced and healthy lifestyle, you either sit and wait until you’re so bored you start solving Sudoku, or you find yourself rushing from one place to another just making the bus, just getting through customs, just getting on the plane, just – just – JUST! … Life on the road is life on the edge and while it creates such amazing excitement, an overload of stress can really affect your state of mind.
3. Uncertainty - Lack of routines: I’m a girl who loves changes, action and adventure, and that is exactly why I need the opposite. I need some routines in my life to be able to keep my feet on the ground. Having routines is hard when traveling, although I have now managed to achieve this more or less – it comes with practice.
4. You have to watch what you eat and drink: When being in hot countries, nothing makes my mouth drool as much as ice cream and cool fresh juices and drinks, and they’re available around every corner. But if I get any closer than just looking at this dripping banana-split, I’ll end up spending the next three days with my head in a bad-smelling bucket – think Bali Belly :s
5. Hard keeping in touch with friends: It’s do-able, but it really wears down on the relationship. The first two months are alright, but after that there is just too many things going on and you have no time, and at the same time so many things have happened back home with your friends’ lives that you have totally missed out on. So when finally seeing them again, you’re no longer the same person you were when you left, and often neither are they.
6. Hard to stay in shape: All the late nights, good food and drinks put their share of kilos on your belly, and at the same time there is no time or place to really get rid of them. Unless you think you own your hostel dorm, you probably won’t use it as your personal gym, and even if you do happen to find a place to work out you won’t find time to do it.
7. Coming back: Coming back home or to your ‘base’ is always tough. It’s hard to adapt to the certainty and every-day life. No more new sights and foreign cultures. The days are similar to each other and nothing really seems to have changed. It’s difficult to share all your experiences, and even if you could nobody really wants to hear it. They’re either not interested or get jealous.
Do you hate anything about traveling around the world? Come on be honest! 
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