A never-ending love story

Knowing that you will never have another day like this, in this company, at this place—it makes it all that much more intense and valuable.

I have been on the road for six months now, but in total, I probably already spent years visiting new places and countries. Travelling: the thing I love the most in life. The thing that makes me feel alive and gives me new-found energy and gratefulness. Gratitude for all the beautiful places and people embedded in this world.

The mixed feelings of the relationship

Travelling also means constantly having to say goodbye to people and places, and I leave a little bit of my soul and heart every time. However, knowing that your time is limited makes you enjoy the present moment so much more. Knowing that you will never have another day like this, in this company, at this place—it makes it all that much more intense and valuable.
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Travel will always keep you on your toes.

The education

Travelling: it makes you speechless. It leaves you breathless. It educates you without books or formal lessons. Instead, you get to feel it in your body, soul and mind. You get to feel the history, the culture and the people—whether by walking down the old streets of Havana, taking a chicken bus in Nicaragua, or making your way through bustling New Delhi. From watching life unfold at the bustling market of Chichicastenango to having a conversation with a Mayan woman on a bus in Mexico to dancing the tango in Argentina.

​Somehow these experiences teach you something about the world that no classroom ever could.

The storyteller

Travelling turns you into a storyteller. You can’t help talking about that date you had with an Argentinian guy who made you asado in the middle of the wilderness, played his guitar, and sang you Spanish love songs. Or that day in South Africa where you had your first encounter with a great white shark. You can’t stop the flow of stories about the time you climbed Mount Roraima in Venezuela, went paragliding over the Andes mountains, or lived on a houseboat in Kerala.

These stories become part of you. They become part of your identity, and you get to treasure the memories more than any amount of money. Oh, the sweet memories… the memories that bring out mixed feelings of joy, nostalgia and deprivation.

A final note

Dear travelling, you will forever have my heart. I have been captivated since the first time I laid my eyes on you. What we got going on is a never-ending love story, and somehow I will always be yours. You are my love, my rock and my addiction.

Author - Sara Helmark

Sara Helmark is from Denmark. She has a master’s degree in cross-cultural studies and is a traveller and writer who sold everything back home, and left without plans to return any time soon. Follow her big adventure on her travel blog: www.mynewflipside.com