On Traveling // A break from routine

The one thing that we humans will always find freedom in, is travel. It is freeing and humbling, a pause from a routined life through the year. Summer is here, and like everybody else, my next vacation is on my mind.?

What does travel mean to me???

Travel is exploring without meticulous planning and learn about people and their ways from our planet’s vast accommodations. It is wonderful how landscapes change, cultures change, human features change... all as you traverse through the magnanimity of the globe.

My highlight travel experience?

A country that I absolutely loved visiting, is Spain. I’ve been there twice, once with my wife and once on a work trip. And each time, the cities there struck a chord with me. Spanish culture celebrates a brilliant balance between work and personal life, a kind of balance that I was not used to. Cityscapes are designed for good times, beyond work. And offices morph into productivity capsules during-work hours and become no-man’s land after-work hours.?

A photograph from my work trip in Spain.

What changed in me??

Appreciating my life beyond work. Meagre as it sounds, as a young professional starting my career, I ingrained the hustle culture early on. My life distilled to the productive hours in office and with clients, and quality time with close friends and family slowly evaporated. I am grateful for my visit to Spain, as I realised this at the time. It is not easy to maintain a balance. More often than not, as a human being, I slip into imbalance. But being present to it means I can alter my ways as fast as I slip into the imbalance!?

My ideal travel itinerary?

Road Trips. My ideal travel buddy is my wife as she is versatile and open to change. The both of us do not plan our trips too much in advance. We follow good weather and good locations. If we know some interesting facts about a certain location, we just go for it. Dunkirk was one such spontaneous visit, a car ride away from Belgium. Another time, we were in Barcelona, and ended up at Girona, one of the filming locations for the Game of Thrones series. Our travels are so flexible that only the entry date to the country/city and the exit date are planned. Rest is all up to the moods, feelings and thoughts in the moment!?

How do I detach from work when on leisure trips??

Genuinely, I can ever fully detach myself from work. I believe that sort of detachment is something we can pretend to have, but never truly attain. Our team’s first rule is respecting when the other is traveling and ensuring zero calls and messages to them during that time. I do become flexible in reviewing emails, replying to messages and generally catching up from the different time zones I may be in. Another thing I do is delete unnecessary mobile apps while on vacation.?

The time away from work helps me every time. I learn new things about myself and people I travel with; if they are work buddies, our relationships grow as we learn nuances about one another. I remove my regular pair of lenses and put on fresh, untouched ones to see missing gaps, open endings and big opportunities in life.?