The most beautiful, exciting and nerve-shaking thing about traveling is how vulnerable we become. At home, we put up our shields, assess risks and do all we can to avoid getting hurt. But on the road, this all changes. We let go. We embrace our sensitivities and expose ourselves to all kinds of things we wouldn’t normally, including love. We open up to the idea of falling in love like we’ve never done before and so we fall in love quicker than we ever knew possible.
We fall in love with places, with languages, with foods and cultures, sights, sounds, smells, and experiences. We also fall in love with people and, like falling asleep, it happens fast. You walk through the ruined temples of some mysterious but forgotten city and your eyes lock onto someone else’s. He walks over. You start talking. Eat together. Share in moments. And find yourself falling in love before the sun has even come up. It is crazy.
So, to help you out, and help you get your head around your heart, we have come up with a list of things you’ll learn when you fall in love while on the road.
This Benchmark Ruins Your Hope Of A Future
Something magical happens when two people meet while outside their comfort zones. What would usually take months and months to develop only takes a matter of days? You meet in a picturesque location, and instantly feel a mutual attraction that you base your relationship on as the sun falls. Then, by day three, he’s learned fluent English thanks to AJ Hoge, you’ve learned all about each other’s families and back stories and loves and hates and what allergies each of your parent's pets have. It has been fast and furious, but the benchmark has been set. But that’s what kills off this romance because the backdrop of waterfalls and warm evenings has given way to the realities of life; a reality that no amount of Skype calls or love letters can fix.
You Realise This Was Lust Not Love
For all those that have been traveling, you’ll know what it is like to fall in love with a place. It is the setting, the experience, that great Asian adventure and the context of everything that makes your heart pound. It tends to add to the romance you may have and distorts those feelings of love you are sure you feel. What we mean is, you may have fallen in love with the idea of something more than the thing in question; the thing being that boy. You have fallen in love with the idea of falling in love while on an exotic adventure. But as soon as you arrive back home, you are reminded of all the things that they lack, and how all of the things that made you compatible were mirages. What makes a person fit in reality is very different to the illusions you can feel while traveling. It may have been love but, chances are, it was a love of your adventure and lust over that person.
Almost All Travel Romances Come To An End
It starts off so perfect: everything you promised one another you keep to. You Skype, call, message and sent lovey-dovey postcards sprayed with perfume and marked with lipstick. Every day you wake up pining for them, missing that adventure you were on and desperate to check your messages to see that goodnight kiss they sent you. But no matter how amazing and how real all of this feels, they daily grind does what it does best; it grinds out your romance and reminds you that life goes on no matter how much you tell each other it doesn’t. The time between messages gets longer, the phone calls get shorter, the postcards stop and your heartache subsides. Until, eventually, you start smiling and wondering what it was that made you ever think this was the real deal.
