Honest Notes From the Road

 🌍 Honest Notes From the Road

I’ve learned that being honest about travel doesn’t mean being negative. Saying “this city wasn’t as magical as Instagram made it look” is just being real. A friend once confessed that Venice felt more like a crowded theme park than a romantic escape -  and that honesty made the story more relatable than any glossy postcard.

Adventure, I’ve realized, isn’t about the size of your backpack. It’s about curiosity. On a train ride from Berlin to Prague , I ended up swapping recipes with a fellow traveller’s mother’s sandwich story. That felt more adventurous than any “extreme” trek. Backpacking is just luggage; curiosity is the real passport.

Travel is also a privilege. Not everyone gets visas easily, or feels safe moving across borders. I’ve met students who saved for years to afford one trip abroad, while others casually hop countries every month. That contrast makes me grateful for every journey I get to take.

And here’s a myth worth breaking: not every foreign country is cleaner, safer, or “better” than India. I once stayed in a Berlin Airbnb where the landlady proudly composted and recycled, but I’ve also walked through spotless streets in Pune that rival any European city. Every place has its quirks  -  travel teaches you to appreciate both.

Waking up at 4 a.m. doesn’t make anyone a superior traveller. Sure, catching Angkor Wat at sunrise is breathtaking, but so is sipping chai with co‑travellers at midnight on a roadside. Travel isn’t a competition of alarm clocks  -  it’s about savoring moments.

And sometimes, people don’t want to travel as much as they want the identity of being a traveller. If check‑ins and selfies had no social media value, how many would still go? I once met a solo traveller in Nepal who didn’t even own a smartphone. She bonded with strangers at hostels, wrote letters home, and lived the experience fully - without a single Instagram post. That’s travel for the soul, not the feed.

 

✨ What Stays With You

The best parts of travel aren’t the bragging rights. They’re the small bonds - swapping snacks with strangers on a bus, listening to a landlady’s stories about her city while staying in her quaint Airbnb, or laughing with co‑travellers when plans go sideways.

Those are the moments that stick, long after the photos fade . . .