After nearly three months of working from home due to the COVID-19 crisis, I’m really starting to miss traveling and spending some time overseas. I even started reading Rolf Potts’ wonderful book Vagabonding once again. I think this is the third time I’m reading it, or actually listening to it, and I highly recommend the audiobook version narrated by the author himself.
Schlossgarten Charlottenburg, while living in Berlin in 2019. Photo by NR.
Sure, Zoom and other similar video communication tools have been fantastic for collaboration in COVID-19 times, and we’ve even had memorable get-togethers and after-work “happy hour” sessions, but it just isn’t the same thing as meeting people face to face. In fact, it doesn’t come even close and obviously it’s not a surrogate for seeing and experiencing places abroad.
The main thing for me when travelling is the altered state of mind you reach, which arises from a combination of meeting new people and experiencing interesting things in an unfamiliar setting. There’s that slight sensation of being outside of your comfort zone and you start to observe things that you wouldn’t notice at home. Time tends to move a bit slower and you’ll have to use skills and parts of your brain that you wouldn’t activate in the comforts of your own home or home town.
Given that the crisis has hit hardest the airline industry and the hospitality industry, I wonder what travelling will look like when the crisis is over? Will it ever be over for these industries? Are we going to witness a permanent decrease in travel volumes? For sure these industries will look different after the crisis, as many operators will not have survived and others have been forced to innovate or change in order to make ends meet.
For many years my ambition has been to live in a new country each year, even if it would only be for a month or so. Last year it was Berlin but unfortunately it looks like this goal will not be met this year. It makes me a bit sad, but that’s life and there’s no point in feeling miserable about it. Things could be much worse and health and safety must be prioritized. Instead, I’m grateful for all the vagabonding opportunities I’ve had so far in my life – and I’m going to make sure I cherish all future opportunities as well.