Culture Shock, Travel Burnout & Learning Curves.

Up there on one of the top tips I’d give someone heading off an a long-term backpacking trip is this:

Always think carefully when transferring money.

For instance, I was back in Toronto on Friday and noticed my funds getting low, so I thought to myself, “what the hey, I’ll just transfer the rest of my travel money over to my travel card and go buy the extra clothes I’ll need for Iceland”. The ice cold feeling that descended in my gut a mere five minutes later told me of my foolish mistake. It was a Friday afternoon. Meaning? It was Saturday in Australia, and I wouldn’t have access to any money (bar $30) til Monday.

So I’ve been in the airport for… 24 hours so far. I feel like I’ve been here forever. I’ve barely slept, haven’t showered, when I did sleep it was in a toilet cubicle on the floor covered in clothes because there are signs all around the terminal saying no sleeping. I even got told off this afternoon for napping in an armchair. Put that on top of the fact that it’s midnight and it’s still light outside (hello Summer in Iceland), I’m suffering travel burnout and reverse culture shock to the nth degree – will someone please fill my bank account and fly me back to Central America, please? It’s been a whole week but I’m still throwing toilet paper in the bin, saying hola and gracias, and every ten minutes or so I think, “Why does everyone look so stressed?”. I don’t want to pay $10 for a sandwich, when I could spend that on a feast complete with cocktails by the beach in Mexico. I want to wake up and stretch, eat fresh fruit, go swimming in ceynotes, read a book in a hammock and dance salsa with people I’ve just met.

Take me home.

Or at least, let me sleep. I have to walk 10km, ascending 1000m this afternoon. I get to ;). I just have to get through today… til my money comes in. I don’t even have money to buy a water bottle bigger than 500mL, which is an issue as we don’t have any access to free water til tomorrow’s camp. So I’m going to need to ask…

Funnily enough, I picked up a book at the last hostel I was at called ‘Ishmael’ – about the construction of modern day society. Look how ordered we are… look how we can defy nature… look how we can turn away from all this is ‘primitive’. Why is primitive wrong? Primordial… to the roots… connected… at one with the Earth. We weren’t born to rule this planet, we were born to live in it, harmoniously, as another species.

I don’t feel happy and shiny today.