Life is a Journey and a Journey is a life

I keep asking myself why the hell is it I feel so much more alive when I am traveling than in almost any other situation.

It is kind of strange to sit down in these days of lockdowns and travel restriction - in times where the smallest of all lifeform (well some even say a virus is not a lifeform, because it cannot by itself multiply) actually takes a whole planet as a hostage - and start writing about the art of traveling. But isn´t it simply true that we most wish, desire, see, imagine what we can`t have at that time? So maybe now is the right time to creatively re-remember what is most important for us - or in this case for me -when dreaming about a true journey - a quest into the unknown with a desire for the unexpected, a bit of unaccounted adventures. Experiences that are not just reproduction from a magazine, a blog or a youtube vide or a promise kept exactly as it was made by some perfect marketing material. For me, that is the quintessential difference between a vacation or a holiday and a true journey. Vacations and holidays try to reduce any risk of things happening that were not planned and they are successful to the degree that they checked exactly the boxes that I or the agent put on the list. 

For me a journey needs a framework or even a storyline - the iternary planned - but - and this is the essential difference - as soon as another better story grows out of unforeseen events I gladly follow this alternative path and see where it leads me. Trusting my abilities and the little bit of luck that every traveller needs to overcome obstacles. And aren`t we as travellers actually kind of proud about difficulties in our way and about our creativity, persistence, ingenuity or simply the friendliness of strangers that helped us to overcome whatever "destiny" put in our way. That is also a difference I would consider relevant: a journey confronts you with destiny and a vacation with bad planing or rotten infrastructure - all just a nuisance. It doesn't make sense to lament on destiny when on a journey but it is a beautiful occasion to curse the tour operator and write a nasty review to Trip Advisor when on a vacation.

So a good journey is like a life, with ups and downs, experiences that change the way you think and even who you are. Risks that you take and that you enjoy and that make you grow. Insights and wisdoms to be gained,. The only thing a vacation changes is your bank account and the insights it produces is don´t trust your travel agent. You are satisfied when everything happened like you planed it. On a journey you appreciate all the things that happened unplanned.