Recurring travel habits…
I’ve been re-reading and updating some of my old travel blogs to add on here, and I noticed that some phrases, activities and patterns are often repeated through each trip. Here are some of the things I’ve noticed so far:
- I complain about walking anywhere. A lot
- There are always shoe-related issues, which contribute to the above
- We worry about using public transport, then love it when we do and wonder why we haven’t used it earlier
- We always eat in at least one tourist trap restaurant on a main square which has pictures of food on a board outside or a set “touristic” menu, despite swearing we wont set foot inside
- We drink in at least one bar which feels like no tourist has ever entered before
- I will attempt a few words in the local language, then panic in case people think I am fluent and continue the conversation
- Comfy beds and early nights win over late-night drinking sessions
- We never eat or drink in the restaurants or bars I have meticulously researched, although I always point them out as we pass
- I remember bars and restaurants I’ve researched easily, but always fail to remember any important historical or cultural facts about a city
- I am easily bribed by alcohol
- Completing a three-day carefully planned itinerary in one afternoon, and then wandering around aimlessly with no particular place to go.
- At some point we will stand on a street corner with a map looking confused, hoping someone doesn’t ask if they can help because we don’t know where we’re trying to go
- We love a good free walking tour
- We’re not very cultured and prefer architecture, gardens and parks to museums and galleries
- We have a penchant for tacky fridge magnets (particularly those with bottle openers attached) and Christmas decorations. And souvenir bottles of local alcohol which will never be opened, or will be mixed in some exotic concoction on New Years Eve when all the wine has been drank.
- We will always open every drawer and cupboard when we check into our room, celebrate the presence/mourn the absence of a kettle, loudly proclaim “and this is the bathroom…” like a substandard estate agent, and click every light switch to “see what it does…”
What are your travel habits? And which ones will you try and break in 2016?
This post made me smile. Actually no, it made me laugh out loud 🙂 Yes, some of those points may/do relate to us!! Enjoyed reading it.
I think we’re all creatures of habit Suzanne! The familiar is what keeps us sane amongst the unfamiliar 🙂
Interesting comment Em. I do believe you are correct 🌞
Haha so any of these are true for us too. The language one particularly – I once good involved in a French bakery conversation that involved a lot of laughing as I had plucked up the courage on day three of the holiday to place a 5 item order confidently in French. The shame 🙂
I find saying “bon jour hello” or “gracias thank you” helps 😂
hehehe so true. If I don’t take good notes, my trips recaps look like a training brochure for bartender school with blurred out famous buildings in the background
Much like my Aperol Spritz post 😀
hehehe I think we think a lot alike. Pretty sure that’s awesome for me… not so much for you 😉
🙂 🙂 🙂
We always go to the Irish Bar to use a loo😀
Are Irish Bar loos any better than other nationalities?
No. We just know we will find a kindred spirit behind the bar who we can ask where the loo is!
Inevitably my boyfriend with his long legs will want to walk eeeverywhere and me with much shorter legs will protest and he will refuse to take any form of transportation and then my feet will usually be in such rough shape we have to for the next day. WITHOUT FAIL 😠😠😠😠
I feel your pain (literally)…
Whats up with hotel room lights? Takes me 15 minutes to figure out what works what.
And you will always switch every light on apart from the one you want. And don’t get me started on those ipad controlled things where you flush the toilet when you want to open your curtains…
We collect tacky refrigerator magnets, too! We always try to find the restaurants the locals will eat it, if we’re eating out. Usually, the best are the local breakfast joints.
Good tips Jennifer – only some times you can’t work out who are the locals and who are the tourists! I guess the locals don’t need menus with pictures on them…
Lol I loved that you complain about walking but love a free walking tour!! 😉
I’ve done most of these too! I really feel the same way about architecture and gardens, rather than museums and galleries.
I complain about walking but doesn’t mean i don’t DO walking! Although we were introduced to the world of hop on hop off buses in Porto – why have we never used them before? 😀
I’ve never used those either. I guess I always think of the overpriced ones in London so I didn’t give them a go in other cities…
I think in Porto the ho ho buses were around 12€ which is probably on par most places for days public transport. And it was a godsend with all those hills 😂
Plus, it gives you more breath to try the amazing port!
travel habits for me are checking out the neighbourhood I’m staying in and finding a local bar in said neighbourhood can easily walk “home” from.
Oooh, good tip!