This morning, I cuddled a koala in Cairns and chatted with a girl from South Korea. An hour ago, I ordered a full set meal out of a vending machine in Osaka. I then walked to a 7-11 to use the ATM, and came back with a Starbucks drink called "Seattle latte". And then, a few minutes ago, I checked my Facebook and Gmail to see that I had new contacts from new-made friends from Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium and New Zealand waiting for me--and that beside the constant stream of new requests from my Taiwanese students.
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| I ordered this... |
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| ...using this. |
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| Tomorrow morning, I will discover what Japan thinks a Seattle Latte tastes like. Hooray! |
This random interlocking of different people, locales and customs might just be my favorite thing about international travel, and, from what I've seen of it, at least, of solo travel specifically. When you're traveling in a group it's easy and natural to stay in that group; when you're traveling alone, you can't help but reach out, see new things, meet new people, and get a much fuller sense of the world as a result.
This is just a short post--it's 11:45pm here in Japan, and I have to leave my hostel by 6am tomorrow if I want to make my flight on time (which I do)--but I thought I'd take advantage of my free Wifi here to make a quick note on my travels, and shed light on why my travels are only just beginning.
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