1 Year Since Our Life-Changing Experience | What Happened?

Are you considering or planning long-term travelling? Hang on. We’ve been there!

Today marks one year since we left for our first backpacking adventure trip together in Europe. It’s hard to believe, but it’s true: an entire year has passed since we left Malta for the incredible journey which took us to fifteen beautiful countries, flying only twice! Well, it was a year full of mixed emotions and different thoughts.

What happened after returning home from five months on the road? Did we go back to the ‘normal’ routine? What has changed? In today’s blog, we’re telling you all about it.

But before we start. We want to THANK YOU all so much, from the bottom of our hearts, for following our journey. Your support means the world to us!

The Reality

The main reason we left for long-term travelling was that we wanted a change in our life. We wanted to travel, learn, grow, explore and feel alive. The world is too big to stay in just one place. We didn’t know what we were putting ourselves into when we left for our backpacking adventure.

It was tough for us to return. How can one return and leave this beautiful freedom of a lifestyle behind? We tried to keep focused and thought, ‘Maybe we’ll feel better now that we recharged ourselves?’ Not really!

Going back home 

We got back home, a week away from Christmas. Everything seemed the same as it was before we left. Nothing changed. We felt weird. Something was missing. It’s like we couldn’t fit right back in. Only a few days passed, and we started to feel an enormous void inside that we can’t explain. We missed our backpacks, our long hikes, and getting lost. We forgot that sense of freedom that travel gives you. It’s a strange feeling.

Why is it hard for us travellers to go back? 

Packing our backpacks and leaving our ‘normal’ routine life is quite daring, but from our experience, we can confirm that going back takes far more bravery. One has to take guts!  

But why is it so hard to return? Simple. Because WE have changed! We’ve been to countries and places we never imagined, slept in so many different beds, learnt so much about different cultures from different people, and met other travellers along the way. We did whatever came up to our minds. No timetable, no routine. Our goals and interests have changed. Our perspective on life changed in a way no one seemed to understand when we returned. 

What did we do? 

When you’re back after long-term travelling, you start questioning yourself, ‘What now?’ or ‘What’s next?’. You change so much that you feel like you’re a new person. You feel capable of handling any situation and know what you want in life. We knew we couldn’t stick in one place for a long time.

3 weeks Later

Three weeks after returning home, we left again. We couldn’t wait any longer to travel. We needed a break. Some people laugh when we tell them we need a break. They just don’t get it. Remember, we just got back after long-term travelling from one country to another, and then we found ourselves back to the ‘normal’ life. Yes, we needed a break.

We left for a twelve-day road trip in Slovenia, which was amazing. It helped us a lot as we needed to feel that travel feeling again. In Slovenia, we travelled at a slower pace this time and spent time discussing our future. We started to realise that we became good at saving more money and how we became more nostalgic about being more comfortable. We missed those moments when we ended up stranded in the middle of the night or sleeping in the worst hostels. 

We spent our trip exploring each corner of this beautiful country, and of course, we didn’t stop talking about our adventures during our long-term travelling in Europe. We realised we made many beautiful memories with amazing stories we wanted to share with the world. And that’s exactly when the idea of opening a blog took place!

Returning Home Again 

When we returned home after Slovenia, we were so looking forward to starting working our hearts out on this blog, with so many ideas that we felt much more motivated. We searched for new opportunities, came up with new ideas, read articles, spoke with other travel bloggers who helped us, took several courses and worked day and night to make this new dream work out.

Is it Easy? 

Nothing in life is easy; if you have a dream, you must work on it and give your 100%. We couldn’t believe we received such a great response when we launched our travel and adventure blog! All those people who reached out to congratulate us, those who asked for travel tips, and those who were interested in our next travels made us more excited and enthusiastic to keep working and sharing our adventures with you all. We’re still doing so today and on.

Any New Travel Plans? 

Our travels and adventures didn’t stop after Slovenia. We hopped on our sister island, Gozo, several times already, went on a trip to Cyprus with our friends that was a blast and spent Norbert’s birthday most serenely in Lamezia in Italy. And for all of you asking about our next adventures, you’ll soon find out our next destinations for this year, and also, we have some GREAT plans for the coming years, which we’re already working on!

Was it worth it?

YES, it’s worth it! Backpacking in Europe was a life-changing experience for us. It’s the best decision we ever took for ourselves. We believe that long-term travelling should be on every traveller’s mind. It shows you what you want in life, become more open-minded and learn many things you’ve never heard of.

If you decide to go for it, which we urge you to do, you won’t regret it! Take that first step, go on a fantastic journey and create memories you’ll remember all your life.

Whatever questions you have, feel free to get in touch with us. You know we’re more than happy to help. Once again, we thank you all amazing people for following our journey, and we hope you keep joining us in our next travels and adventures!

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