True meaning of travelling

by Alena Zagrebina (Russia)

I didn't expect to find Germany

I always loved travelling. I loved seeing new cities and towns; I loved visiting museums, attractions, famous buildings. In my head I had a certain idea what travelling really is. For me it was sightseeing, taking lots of pictures, trying local food and most importantly buying souvenirs. I had that idea for a long time and was totally fine with it. Until one day. The DAY that changed my perspectives on travelling forever! My most memorable journey started in Vienna, Austria. As a true tourist I visited Viennese Opera, Belvedere, Schönbrunn castle, the Zoo and other touristy places. I fell in love with the city with its outstanding architecture, sounds of classical music and the most delicious sausages. I thought I was living the paradise. But one mind-changing thing happened at the very end of my trip. Two days before my flight back home I decided to go to the Neuschwanstein castle (that was a big dream of mine for a long-long time). I said bye-bye to Vienna, took a train and 5 hours later I was there. After having a guided tour of the main castle (by the way, the castle is absolutely spectacular, I truly recommend visiting it) I started looking for a place to spend the night. But (UN)FORTUNATELY all hostels and not-so-pricey rooms were already booked. It was getting dark; I did not know what to do. Suddenly I bumped into a tourist group. They were 9 people and about to make their way up to the top of one mountain to meet the sunrise there. I had no choice but join them. I took all the needed equipment and then surprisingly became a professional “hiker”. And yeah, that was my first real hike. The way up was hard. Extremely hard. But the people made it easier. They were people from different countries, but they all had one similar quality — the love for travelling. By the time when we finally were on the top, it was already dark. We set the fire, ate ham-and-cheese sandwiches and sang songs (to be honest it didn’t work out as good as we thought because of language differences but the song “Let it be” by The Beatles saved us, everyone knew the lyrics, and we probably sang it at least 4 times). After that we went to sleep in our sleeping bags. It was late September and it was quite cold at nights. I woke up freezing before everyone else. It was 6:34 a.m. — almost half an hour before the sunrise. Everyone started waking up. We all had a cup of warm herbal tea and then magic happened — the Sun started to appear. It was big and bright orange. The sky was light blue with a couple of clouds. The mountains around were high and rocky. I stood up at the very edge of the mountain and closed my eyes. Five seconds later I opened my eyes and I felt something. Something I have never felt before. I felt the connection. WARMTH OF THE SUN FRESHNESS OF COLD FOREST AIR STRENGTH OF MOUNTAINS BEAUTY OF WAKING-UP NATURE PEACE AND GRATITUDE I felt at home in nature. And that was the most beautiful feeling ever. I didn’t expect to find that beauty in such a simple thing. I feel more gratitude and appreciation for life now. Sometimes we don’t have to go to the big cities to be a true tripper. We don’t need to do things which other people expect us to do. Often we pay attention to little things and don’t see a whole big beautiful world. True travelling is doing things that give you true feelings; things that make you think deeper; things that bring you joy and excitement. Try to find that connection and never let go.