Traveling is humbling

Happy Wednesday! Thanks for everyones' great feedback on my traveling posts! I'm so glad I was able to share my travels with you. Today's post is a little bit more messy. That's right, messy. I feel like often bloggers and maybe even blog readers get sucked into this mirage that traveling is all Instagram worthy photos and stamps in your passport. To some degree, that's true. But in all honestly I've found that traveling is humbling. 

Remove the amazing notions from your head...traveling rocks your routine, is expensive, and is full of unfamiliarity. I never want to portray that life or my experiences are perfect through this blog. Of course, I like to show more of the good than the bad because I want to look back at these memories fondly. But I also want to keep it real. So story time.

I landed in Brussels, Belgium around 10:30 am after almost 24 hours of traveling. I was tired but excited. It took me awhile to get my luggage, exchange Euros, and grab a taxi but I was still pretty giddy. The taxi driver takes me to the flat I'm staying at and am greeted by a locked door and my phone isn't working. Awesome. I finally get in touch with the owner and am able to get in by grabbing the key under the mat. Everything seems better except I can't get the lock to work. Figured that out to have issues with connecting with Wifi but eventually fix it. All of the these things are trivial but builds up the frustration of the day.

I then decide to go out and explore. My romantic notions of cafes and small shops doesn't last long. I figure out that there isn't much around and walking around alone is a lot more intimidating then it seems. I walk around for 2 hours before becoming absolutely defeated and lonely. At this point my mind wonders to regret and fear. I missed having Wifi so decided to go back to my flat. Wifi stops working, I couldn't figure out the heat, and I was plain lonely. 

After crying to my Mom, I decided that I needed to call it a day and get some sleep. Mom always knows best and told me I probably just needed to reset with a night of rest. Thank God I listened to her. The next day was such a refreshing start to a great trip. But throughout the trip I hit tons of roadblocks whether they were literal issues such as getting lost in Ghent, tackling public transportation, and finding banks, or mental issues such as loneliness or missing back home, but I found a way to power through.

I think some of the most important lessons I took away from my trip are:

1. I was humbled. I realized I can't control every situation and I learned how to ask for help. There wasn't a day that went by that I didn't ask a Belgian for help. For instance, when I needed directions to the train station via the metro and a Belgian woman wrote it all down for me. Her kindness shook me to my core.

2. I learned how to control my emotions. I can panic when things go wrong but I learned how to take a deep breath and think about the next step rather than 3 steps ahead. This especially came in handy when I was lost in Ghent. I didn't let the panic overwhelm me.

3. I learned how to rely on myself. I touched on it before but I have a huge fear of navigating public transportation by myself. But I tackled it and learned how to navigate it with confidence.

4. I am enough. I was able to spend countless of hours by myself, with my own thoughts. I still am plagued by insecurities and loneliness but it was freeing to navigate a foreign country by myself. 

I know my thoughts are all over the place but my honest intentions are to show you that traveling wasn't all pretty, it was tough too. But through those tough lessons I learned so much and felt myself grow leaps and bounds. Traveling is challenging, exciting, eye-opening, and humbling.

Thanks for listening and see you back here on Friday. XOXO