Ok, after 6 posts about TTRPGs (yeah, I know, enough for now), let’s go back to an evergreen of my grumblings. Traveling!

Just today, I read a post on Italia Personal Finance (Italian only, sorry) about travelling.

To sum it up: OP is whining about his friends all spending 2k / 3k € every year for a trip outside EU, and his girlfriend pushing him to do the same for them, while he’d rather spend much less and not go that far.

If you have already read my other post about travelling, you may think I 100% agree with OP, proudly nodded while staring at my screen, and even gave him a solid, bright upvote.

Nah.

First of all, going into Reddit to whine this much sounds as mature as a green orange.

Apart from that, as I wrote in that original post, I think it should be a personal choice. It’s called personal finance for a reason after all.

So, maybe OP’s girlfiend finds joy and excitement traveling every year to a different place, for 2 or 3 weeks. I’d rather hang myself to the ceiling with a rope, singing a Taylor Swift’s song. OP is probably fine with just some travel around Europe here and there.

If we agree nothing’s wrong in each of us, there’s another point I’d like to address.

A lot of people in the comments wrote something along the line of “But OP, traveling OPENS YOUR MIND.”. Now, let me vehemently disagree for a minute here.

If you need traveling to open your mind, with all the burden it brings, the financial costs, etc., I have bad news for you.

I don’t travel a lot, or, almost never, in the common sense of boarding on a plane and going far away with a backpack on the shoulders and a big smile on my face. I go away on weekends, yes, but mostly driving with my significant other somewhere within 2 to 4 hours around here. By the way, I assure you you’ll find unending new, interesting places around your hometown, especially if you live in Italy. But that’s topic for another post.

But, lo and behold, I consider myself quite open-minded. Yeah, I mean, almost nobody would tell you “I’m CLOSE-MINDED and proud of it!”. But I rarely find myself judging in a superficial way. I like philosophy, literature (I almost graduated in Italian modern literature, after all). Almost all my friends consider me an interesting, lateral-thinking person.

I mean, maybe back in the 50s, somebody traveling more than the others could proudly call themself “more open-minded”. Today, the ready availability of information, different cultures and opinions on the internet, makes that argument sound silly, in my opinion.

Unfortunately, since love for travel is so widespread, people tend to generalize their overwhelming joy of sleeping in a cramped, dusty hotel. Your humble opinion of “I don’t like traveling, sorry, but good for you if you do!” usually sounds to them something along the line of “I decapitate kittens to have a better sleep”.

I know, I sound bitter. It’s a bit painful after all, hating travel, in a world of travel enthusiasts. Hope you’ll forgive me.

Until next time!