Have you ever thought what would be the opposite of home? Is it out from home? At work? On the road? For me it is away from home, and it seems like my children have the same longing to see the world as I have. My son has spent 3 months in Peru, and another child would like to see the blossoming cherry trees in Japan.

When my youngest child was about to travel to Berlin, Germany, with his school, for the first time in his life, I started to count how many countries I have visited. And to be honest, I got surprised that the number became so big. I’ve had an idea, that I’ve stayed around home most of my life, but still I have visited 14 different countries! Yes, I must admit that some of them only briefly, at the airport or harbor, but still.

What I appreciate most as a lesson from my travels, is to see how people live in the other parts of this continent or globe. Things that are natural to me, is something very exotic to some people. And vice versa. I think that the people are about the same everywhere: there are smart people, lazy people, kind people, jealous people, happy people, angry people no matter where you go. But the way they spend their daily hours is different, what they like to eat is different, how they see their future is different. If you have never met people outside of your bubble, you can’t understand other people’s motives and fears. And I believe that one of the best ways to understand strangers is to meet them, talk to them and make friends with them. It’s easier when you leave your home for a moment.

About a year ago I was able to travel to Nigeria. It was the first trip abroad after my divorce and straight to a country, that is not recommended to visit. 😉 Despite of all the warnings and worries, everything went about the way I had planned. Except karma was telling me that the timing wasn’t right: I missed the flight! If I traveled 2 weeks later, my work things wouldn’t have suffered as much, but I was too stubborn. I have never been too late from any transportation in my life before, and now I came to airport 5 minutes too late! Actually, if I had no luggage going to cargo, I would have been able to travel, but I was too shocked to try another option. So I missed the flight! And a thing I didn’t know about their policy, was that they used so called “no show ” option, so I practically needed to buy another flight tickets to go. Of course that effected my budget in my destination, so I wasn’t able to spend as much in travelling and staying in there. But I learnt a valuable lesson. Don’t miss your flight!

Now I’m going to tell you something that only few people know. I almost missed the return flight too! We had planned to get to the airport in time, and we had booked a taxi to take me to the airport. But he never arrived! No message, no call, nothing! We expected him to arrive at certain time, 5 hours prior to the flight to take off, but he never came. The distance to the airport was so long and road in such a bad condition that I needed to have a taxi quickly, and we tried to get another one. But nobody was willing to take that ride. It took at least 7 calls to get someone there, but they were coming long distance and we were already late. When I arrived to the airport, they had already closed the desk for luggage! I had no other choice but to leave my luggage behind and ruuuuuuuuun. Like Forrest Gump 😀

I ran through security check, passport check, ticket check, through alleys to the gate, without stopping at stores, using conveyer belts when possible, passing people, looking for the right waiting hall and sat down. And sat. And waited. And sat. The flight finally took off about an hour late. The hall where we stayed was crowded and hot and seats were uncomfortable. Toilets far away and no access to drinks. The only thing I could think of was that there will be 26 more hours to go to get back home. And I almost missed the first step.

So that’s how I almost missed the flight back, too and I learnt a lot about travelling. How even when you have planned everything so neatly in advance, there’s always a possibility, that something unexpected happens. And in case you have no extra money, no back up plan, you’ll be in trouble. You can’t always control what is going on, and all you can do is to adopt and do whatever you can. And remain calm. Next time if I’m about to miss the outgoing flight by only few minutes, I will simply leave my luggage in storage (in Helsink-Vantaa airport they have an excellent service for that) and get on board. And while waiting, I’ll do a little meditation to find out if I should go or not. Most likely the result will be: Of course you go. Go, go, go, girl!

After all these troubles I safely came back to Finland, I came back to Liperi. And I started to plan my next trip. Because even tho Nigeria was trying it’s best in showing it’s ugly side, I loved to travel. And I still do. My second trip to Nigeria last spring was totally opposite experience, but I will talk about it later. The idea of putting my experiences into a blog has been evolving for more than a year now, and encouraged by the fact that I’m also a student in tourism and hospitality. I’ve also done maintenance of vacation villas and cottages for some years now, and I’ve collected some valuable knowledge about tourists and what they want while on vacation. All of these are going to be part of my blog. And of course my own experiences will make it unique, I can provide extra spices into this soup called travelling..

And oh, before I forget, you can now sign in to the newsletter of travelling! I’m collecting different points of view about travelling into the newsletter and if you have any suggestions of topic that interests you, just send me an email. I will check what I can do about it.

Have a good time with travelling!

With lots of love

Joana