To be a sheep in the Swiss Alps...
Last night I napped, made myself dinner and wrote this blog at my Airbnb in Vienna, Austria. Great way to spend time in a foreign country, right? Sleeping, eating a lettuce salad and listening to the Up & Vanished podcast. Had someone told me this would be what I'd be doing on a trip around the world, I would have thought, "what a waste of time."
I've found myself managing a lot of expectations over the course of this trip — both my own and those of others. Visiting Frankfurt, Paris and Lyon restored my confidence and my comfort with solo travel after Southeast Asia and India, but life humbled me once again and deviated from my expectations over the past week.
My general attitude is I want to be great at everything, and I get frustrated if I'm not (just ask my sister and my parents about going bowling or mini golfing). So when things like missing stops on the train, going the wrong way on the train or following signs for the train that take me in a circle happen (can you tell I had a rough day with Vienna's public transportation?), I criticize myself for not immediately getting it right, especially when I thought I was nearly a travel pro after my stops in Paris and Lyon.
Super touristy but super pretty Eiffel Tower at night
Both are beautiful cities with so much to do, and it was simple to get around. The Metro connects all parts of Paris, making it an easy and efficient way to see the city. The cafés, the history, the parks, the museums, the people watching, the fashion, the croissants... I could have easily spent a month there instead of just the three days I absolutely loved (though when I return, I’m not going to be living out of a backpack feeling underdressed either).
Lyon, France, from the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière
Most of the things I wanted to do in Lyon were within walking distance of my hostel, and the city also had bikes for rent for farther destinations. I will admit, the bike ride from the city to the incredible outsider art complex La Demeure du Chaos (Abode of Choas in English) was much more of a physical challenge than I anticipated, but it was so worth it. The exhibition is a giant political commentary piece with hundreds of quips in French and a handful in English. I wish I had the time and the battery power on my phone to translate all of them.
One of many destroyed vehicles at Demeure de Chaos outside of Lyon, France
In France, I spent a lot of time hanging out with other people, most of whom were other travelers I met at hostels. We had some great discussions that led to an observation that's been on my mind for the past week.
The cost of traveling always comes up in my conversations with other Americans. Sometimes we talked about how long I've saved to take this trip, sometimes I heard varying complaints about prices in European cities, and sometimes people detailed meticulous daily budgets for their trips. Money decided where to go, when to go, what to do and even how much to eat in one case — a mindset I've been trying to get out of for a long time. I don't think anyone should spend totally frivolously or live outside their means, but I also don't think price should dictate every decision for the inevitable sacrifices of enjoyment and quality of experience that follow.
Le Monument National in the Jardin anglais in Geneva, Switzerland
However, money as the motive is a contagious attitude, and it wormed its way into my head. When I rented a car to drive from Lyon to Marseille, I thought about how the car and the tolls were so much more expensive than taking a bus, rather than the leisurely pace of travel and how awesome it was to drive a brand new car. When I was walking around in Geneva, I compared the cost of everything to the other countries I had visited instead of comparing the cultures. When eating out in Vienna, I made decisions based on price over getting what I wanted since I arrived (obviously wienerschnitzl).
The people I've met from other parts of the world seem much less concerned about money and more concerned about the experience. Our conversations about travel, generally speaking, are more positive and offer more insight about what it's like to visit a place, rather than how it's better or worse than the person's native country. Not to say everyone thinks in this way (both American and not), but the influence of capitalism became much more apparent to me personally. After resolving to not be concerned about cost in the first week of my trip, I again couldn’t stop thinking about how much I was spending and how that would affect me when I return to the U.S. Overall, I felt kinda negative, pretty unenthusiastic and the knot in my right shoulder returning. I also started to worry about what people would think if they knew I wasn’t out and about every minute of the day and was spending time alone reading/writing/sleeping instead.
For the rest of my trip, I’m renewing my resolution to operate how I want with the understanding that it’s OK if I don’t know what to do instantly and it’s OK to enjoy myself. If I want to do something, I'm going to do it without worrying about the cost. And if I don't feel up to doing something, I'm not going to, and I'm not going to worry about what anyone else thinks or the expectations I set before starting this trip. Because in the words of Oscar Wilde, translated into French at the Abode of Chaos:
Qu'est ce qu'un cynique? C'est un homme qui connaît le prix de tout et la valeur de rien.
(What is a cynic? He is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.)
My Instagram has more pictures from the Abode of Chaos and the rest of my travels. Leave me a comment here or there about expectations you have while traveling.