Bowlthizar

Not Op but like op 27 years old, nine years of travel mostly by hitchhiking walking and cheap ass busses.

I answered your question about what happened to me in another post of mine - about relationships and traveling.

I travel for my life. I bleed it. I need the new the weird the strange. I need to be uncomfortable to live the life I want to live. It has been nearly nine years since I started traveling. I have fallen in love many times with woman i have met traveling. Some more then others. What I have learned about this is that While traveling with that person you end up with an idea of that person. The traveler. The let lose no worries, always up for everything, ready to drink snake venom, and hop on a boat to a new country. Then you get home. Let say that again. Then you get home. You go and meet them where they are from. You traveled thousands of km to get there. You put yourself hell because you remember what it was like to just be in the persons presence when you were traveling together. Always happy. Always seeing everything the person wants you to see. But at home that magic that was there. The magic that bound you and them together is not the truth. The truth is they went back to work they met their friends, they had to do things for their family and friends. They had to make promises to keep. They had see old loves. You become part of their vacation. You become and idea they had and when you get there. When you get there you are still a traveler. Your life is out of your bag, you don't have to keep times, or please friends, or make promises you can't, or see old lovers. You get to leave all of that and be selfish. They can not. They went back to their life - and all of those sweet promises made when you were traveling. The whimsical nature of falling in love on the road. The idea that you could conquer the world and work from a van in aussie to afford to head up to Vietnam. All because they were your equal and with them you could have conquered the world. But the illusion is gone. You are but a traveler, and they were just on vacation.

I say all of this and each person I have met holds a special place in my heart. some visit me and we continue our relationships much let OP said. Others move on because contract becomes increasing hardly. I love each of those people in many more ways than I could ever express. They are my family my bond to the world. People like the ones I have met have kept me going - have been my strength. I gave up my relationship with my family long ago.

when i get sick on the road It always works out to where I get taken care of or I can fix the problem. I hurt my shoulder really bad in portugal and it is still causing me problems because I didn't take proper care of it. Taking proper care of injuries while traveling and use of preventive medicine is probably why us travels don't get sick often - or even food poisoning that often. Exposed to much shit.

I work from my computer so money isn't an issue unless i get fucked by a client.

this right here is the beauty of travel. All of us who have been on the road have faced these challenges and overcome so much more. But it leaves us with a connection to each other.

I urge you to continue that path and even though you have built her in your head you now have the frame work for an ideal. For something you can build for yourself so you can have so much more.

It was an idea much like your own that finally let me realize what I wanted to do in life. The idea of all of the people I met and their dreams and their wants - the idea of travel - that regardless of distant language culture - we bound over the simple. Shared meals, lost lovers, and the ideal of the world we want to live in.

In time you will have some easement in that feeling - the colours will go back to being less dim. But it does take time. You are now one of the privileged few who have found their silver thread.

Maybe that feeling isn't missing her but the feeling your ideal could expand well beyond a location.

I work in applied mathematics mostly in financial engineering cant tell you how many times i spent my last penny and slung code from an airport while eating what people couldn't take on flights. Most of the time I travel by working in hostels, farms, building, and cooking. Tons of cooking. If you offer a meal to someone you get a family in return.

I swear you could be my brother. I travel the same as you, and have come to the same conclusions you have about relationships and travel. My project is a "hostel". If you need anything on the road message me and you have a meal and a place to stay no questions.

No blog. I just travel and meet people. I try to keep it as simple as possible.

I have a story sharing project I will probably start working on in the summer. Which will be something like a podcast for travelers - told from the point of view of a subject. I.E Marriage, education, different countries - and it would be travelers speaking about this things in an open conversation. I am working out the details right now with a few hostel owners around the world to help with it.

the path to a good life. It's simple but yet the hardest thing we could face.

Right now in NYC. Japan for March maybe mongolia to india after.

I would be down. Shall we pick a spot somewhere between us?