fromrusttoroadtrip: On our route West we picked up a hitchhiker. Her name was Anna, and she’d
fromrusttoroadtrip: On our route West we picked up a hitchhiker. Her name was Anna, and she’d flown out from Bristol to do the festival circuit like us, from Santa Fe to Fronteira. As nice as it was to have some extra company for a change, it also struck me what it’s like to be a solo traveller. I watched quietly from afar as she walked up to any old person who was sitting around a campfire and struck up a conversation with them, accepting any offer of food or beer they were all too willing to share, and wished that I could be more like her.Living in our van gives us the freedom to go to these places and explore, but its sky blue steel walls can also fence us in, make it easy to isolate ourselves from the outside world. You’re living outside, but you’re not sleeping with your face in the dirt and daisies, at the mercy of the elements shielded by nothing but a thin sheet of nylon. Would we be better off without the distractions of technology and the comfort of a permanent bed and a gas stove?Maybe it just takes the right kind of person to throw yourself into any old conversation with a total stranger and see where the wind takes you, or maybe we just need to leave the safe and cosy confines of our bed once in a while, strike up a conversation with someone we don’t know, not hide away in the mountains away from civilisation. I’m not a naturally confident person, I’m crippled by social anxiety and shyness, yet somehow all of the fondest memories from our trip involve meeting other people. I’m starting to see that it’s not just about taking in the views, it’s about the chance encounters and the late night fireside talks and experiencing the countries we visit through the people we meet. It’s amazing what can happen when you step outside your door.( - Lucy)#Follow the hashtag #Fromrusttoroadtrip to follow our van conversion project and our travels around Europe! -- source link