We need to talk about ‘Wanderlust culture’ Travelling has never been easier, this much is a certainty. I was catching up with a friend who had just returned from Italy last month when, out of curiosity, I did a 5 minute research to discover the cheapest flights available in Europe, from Portugal. Imagine my surprise to find I could easily go to Paris or Milan for outrageous prices such as 20€. That’s about as much as I pay to visit my hometown, 120kms away. My mouse’s cursor hoovered anxiously over the “Buy” button. My mind quickly running a pro-and-against discussion with itself to determinate my next action. I didn’t buy a ticket and I don’t regret my actions. As a young, attractive and slightly moldy young man who sometimes inexplicably smells of crab, living in a location that is very attractive to tourists, I feel a lot of unreasonable pressure from my peers to travel. ‘Explore the world’, they say, ‘learn about yourself somewhere else’, they say, ‘go on a self-discovery journey by going on an actual journey!’, they say, doing their best to hide their lingering depression and feelings of rejection resulting from my disinterest and their respective love life. I’m not sure when I began to feel this pressure, but, if I had to guess, I’d say it started somewhere between finishing college and getting my first real job. Why are …show more content…
How I’ve longed to visit Paris so I could sleep inside a public toilet. For starters, there’s the ‘promise’. Travelling is an exhausting experience, specially if you’re not going alone. You need to find the date that works for everyone, you need to find the cheapest flight, you need to bargain with the ticket saleswoman, when the bargain fails you need to hire the local witch to run a spell on the saleswoman, pack your things, forget half of your things. Do you have pets? Good luck, you’ll need to contact Tommy from 2nd year of college, who after dropping college is now selling weed downtown so he can take care of your