The Privilege of being able to travel in the first place
I like and follow travel blogs and Instagrams with grids of saturated blue-sky landscapes between sepia-filtered cobblestone and glass cities as much as the next person. I even sometimes try to take photos depicting that wanderlustful vsco girl lifestyle. At the same time I try remain conscious of financial barriers to access that people have that makes it not realistic for everyone to travel.
Growing up, my family didn’t go on ski trips or vacations to Mexico or Hawaii like other families I knew. I was pretty lucky to have gone on an airplane trip to San Diego for a couple weeks every two or three years to visit relatives there. But definitely, seeing the Eiffel Tower in Paris, exploring anime culture in Japan, even visiting the other side of Canada were out of reach. As a child I thought I’d have to wait until I was much older, in some middle-of the ladder corporate job in my 40s or in retirement maybe, to see the world like I’ve always wanted.
The year I was turning 20 I used savings accumulated from summer jobs and living at home and to travel around Western and Central European cities for two months. I slept in hostels, couchsurfed on strangers’ couches I found on couchsurfing.com, on sleeper cars in trains, and a couple nights I stowed my 45L backpack in a storage somewhere and stayed out the whole night until daylight.
I saved a lot of money doing it on a budget and could have done it even cheaper if I had been willing to spend more time or take more risks with finding transportation like waiting for long distance ride shares (I wasn’t looking for these at the time). It still cost a lot of money ($2000 CAD for the round trip flight from Canada and the train pass for 10 days of unlimited train travel within a 2 month period, plus more for hostel expenses, meals, going out, and cultural experiences). I always have to budget and plan for it in between semesters and vacation time with a workplace. It is definitely a challenge and potentially out of reach for many people to save these amounts amidst debt (student loan or otherwise) and factors outside their control, like outdated wages that don’t match high cost of living.
It was a big personal development experience because it was my first time leaving North America, first time travelling solo and to date my longest experience of uninterrupted semi-nomadic travel with no schedule, no classes, no other obligations. It was the first satiation for my lifelong appetite to see the world.
