Travel Rant: Traveling the Wrong Way

Published on by LostViivi

By all means I am not professional traveler. My solo trip to Japan for three months was one big catastrophe, last year my holiday to France was far from smooth and let’s not even talk about the times I have been travelling my home country Finland. Too many embarrassing memories there.

Making plans and following them isn’t my strength. At Tokyo I forgot to visit some of the must see places (when I say must see places I mean the most popular attractions). My two days in Paris went by sleeping in the hotel and not doing anything. Usually the new streets and sights may steal my attention and make me forgot all the cool places I came to visit at the first place.

In the other hand I act like tourist. Taking pictures of any silly new thing, going to familiar McDonalds and singing up for too expensive tourist tours. Sometimes I decide not to go for some cool place because it’s too expensive and I rather buy more food or souvenirs.

Socializing, partying or getting friends has never been easy for me. In the end I always say something wrong or make the person lose interest. I get scared shitless if someone starts conversation without warning. My fear of human contact gets so bad that I can’t even ask help from locals while traveling.

When I told my family and friends for the first time that I would leave and travel alone they laughed at me. No one believed that me, shy awkward girl, would really make my words true. They didn’t believe until I packed my backs and left. And even after that everyone seemed to think I wouldn’t survive.

I have this unexpectedly way of finding trouble anywhere I go. At Japan I accidentally went to closed amusement park and got in trouble with police (fortunately they were totally cool). While using train in France I booked trip that had under 5 minutes changing time and almost missed my second train. Those two are just examples of many others.

So like you can see I am far from professional adventurer. For everyone’s sake I probably shouldn’t travel at all. Then how did I end up having this feeling inside of me? Why does my soul want to leave every time I come back home? There is wide world outside and I just don’t seem to have the self-control to stay in one place for too long.

I may not be born traveler but that is never been the point for me. Some may say I do everything wrongly and this way I will never experience all my bucket list items. But I visit foreigner countries to learn, to get in trouble and feel like living. Inside of me lives lost soul and it encourages me to leave. For me this is the only right way there is. For me this is the life style making me happy.

So for all of you who travel “the wrong way” let’s just continue our own way of travelling and prove everyone else wrong!

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So I didn’t have post for today because I decided to do last minute trip to travel writing lecture on Friday and didn’t have time to write. But here is older post I must have written last summer! I don’t know why I never published it… Maybe because it is kind of embarrassing?

You can read more random Travel Rants from here. And like always feel free to comment any thoughts you have.

With love,

Viivi Severina

22 thoughts on “Travel Rant: Traveling the Wrong Way”

  6. It took me years to learn how to travel the right way. I thought I had everything down by reading guide books and travel blogs. Wrong, you only learn by getting out there and seeing what’s right and wrong. Loved your post.

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  7. It’s so great that you’re honest! And haha about the McDonalds thing, I make it a point to go to a McD’s every country I go to (and I very rarely eat it when I’m in the UK!)

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  9. There is no right way! Just do your own thing and enjoy! I think accidental discoveries are often the most interesting, and things going ‘wrong’ often takes you down paths you’d never have explored. At the very least, travel mishaps make good stories. Live and learn!

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  10. You sound like Frodo Baggins, always in the wrong place but somehow ends up with the most memorable experiences!

    Also what does it matter how ‘good’ or ‘bad’ a traveller you are? You’ve managed to travel half a world a way and return successfully! So from one shy introvert to another, congratulations and keep going! 🙂

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    1. Always wrong place and wrong timing! Well maybe being ‘wrong’ or ‘right’ doesn’t matter but many people complain about it. Let’s just keep going as shy introverts! Thanks for commenting 🙂

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  11. I think anyone who says they had a perfectly smooth trip is either lying or incredibly boring. Traveling the wrong way means you’re doing it right! I think the mistakes I’ve made make for the best stories – like yours of going into a closed amusement park! I’d love to hear the long version of that! Keep doing exactly what you’re doing! Xx

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