5 Uncomfortable Truths About Traveling

We all love to hop on a plane or in a car and set out on a new adventure. But there can be some not-so-fun realities to being filled with wanderlust—even more so than the empty pockets and jetlag.
You’ll be heartbroken more than once.
You’ll have to leave places, people and another version of yourself for good. Even though you had the best time of your life, made new friends, experienced breathtaking things and discovered amazing places, there will be a time when you hop on that plane and you’re off to new adventures (or home). Your heart will feel broken. But you promise you’ll come back, and sometimes you do. But sometimes this is it. Over time, you won’t feel that heart-broken anymore but your heart will skip a beat when thinking of that place. And that other place. And…

Your bucket list will never get shorter
There will always be the places you haven’t been to and then there are the places you’ve been to and desperately want to go back to again. Then you hear about another place, a place you’ve never thought of visiting before and you’ll start your bucket list from scratch again. And again. And again.
You’ll miss home, and when you’re back home you’ll miss traveling.
There will always be a minute, an hour, a day, a week while traveling when you’re missing home. Your friends back there, your own bed, the café around the corner where they know how you drink your coffee. That’s okay. When you’re back home, you’ll miss the friends on the road, that wooden bungalow on the beach and that bar where no one knew who you were. That’s okay too.

Even if you’re a master of JOMO, there will always be a bit of FOMO.
I’m a firm believer in JOMO, the “joy of missing out.” I love traveling without a plan, without an itinerary and to take each day as it comes. But even I sometimes catch myself thinking, ah, man, shouldn’t I go see or do this and this instead of sitting here and having a coffee? What if it’s really that amazing like every guidebook says? What if? Then you start feeling all weird and this strange feeling comes up. Fear of missing out.
Montezuma’s revenge is a thing.
Sorry, but yeah. We’ve all been there.
 
Yvonne Zagermann
Yvonne is the publisher of JUST travelous, an award-winning travel blog that focuses on unique experiences, adventure travel, and flashpacking. Yvonne surprises readers with unique experiences which show you the world from a different angle—whether she’s falling from a camel in Oman, surviving a cobra attack in South Africa, or getting a tattoo by a Buddhist monk. JUST travelous is written in English and German, and in addition to being one of the best travel blogs in Germany, it’s one of the Top 100 international travel blogs.