Since I\u00a0just turned\u00a030, I gave my friend Jane, whom I met in Ecuador<\/a><\/strong>, to write a short article about her travelling experience, as someone who is not as young as me.<\/span><\/p>\n I was busy living my life – you know, the usual stuff \u2013 family, house, responsibilities, when suddenly everything changed and I seriously began to question my existence.<\/span><\/p>\n The deeper I delved, the more I realised that I had always held onto a dream of travelling, of really seeing the world and the people in it. And then it began. Like an itch in the back of my brain the thoughts tumbled around and around.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I could think of a whole host of reasons why I shouldn\u2019t travel, but one by one I talked myself out of them.<\/span><\/p>\n So, the job and the finance were no longer barriers, but what did I actually want to do while I was travelling? I didn\u2019t want to be staying in expensive hotels and watching others play happy families. I didn\u2019t want to be lonely. And I didn\u2019t want to dip into my money pot because that was the only security that I had for my future.<\/span><\/p>\n I had heard about hostels but they were full of bed bugs and young people on their gap year partying hard, weren\u2019t they? But if I were to stay in hostels I could eke out my funds and meet like-minded people.<\/span><\/p>\n So I did a trial run. I booked myself into a backpackers\u2019 hostel in Edinburgh for a few days.\u00a0 <\/span>And goodness, was I nervous! What was the etiquette? Surely I would be the oldest person there and everybody would be with their group of friends and I would stick out like a sore thumb and…and…and…the list went on.<\/span><\/p>\n I won\u2019t lie to you; that weekend was traumatic. I stayed in a large dormitory where hardly anybody spoke English but I wasn\u2019t the oldest person and there were other solo females so I didn\u2019t stand out as an oddity. And the sheets were clean with no bed bugs. Maybe I could do this!<\/span><\/p>\n I began to do some research. I compared \u2018round the world\u2019 flights to \u2018open-jaw\u2019 flights. I had a few Spanish lessons. I bought a backpack<\/a><\/strong> (too big as it happens, but I now know that EVERYBODY\u2019S first backpack is too big). And I booked a flight to Peru<\/a><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n And now the doubts really began to crowd in. My brain was no longer itching \u2013 it was thumping with all of the excuses and good reasons why I shouldn\u2019t travel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I only spoke English. Bunk beds are for seven year olds. I didn\u2019t know how to book a \u2018chicken bus\u2019. I would get mugged. Nobody would speak to me. I would get lost. My rucksack was too heavy. Border crossings are dangerous. I was too old. I would lose my passport. There would be corrupt officials expecting bribes. I was going to die.<\/span><\/p>\n My first three nights on arrival in Lima were booked and I was tormented with visions of a dystopian city.\u00a0 <\/span>Of course it would be dark and grim with scrawny beggars on every corner, with open sewers, shanty towns and slums and factory chimneys spewing smoke and there would be rats, robbers and rabid dogs waiting to pounce on me.<\/span><\/p>\n I began to have nightmares and stomach aches.<\/span><\/p>\n So I went onto the internet and I called up images of Lima. Of course there were slums and dark alleys but there were bright modern buildings, beautiful colonial architecture and…it was a normal city.<\/span><\/p>\n I pushed all of my doubts to the back of my mind and I decided to tackle each problem as I encountered it. I took a leap of faith and I resigned from my job. <\/span><\/p>\n I was going travelling.<\/span><\/p>\n Two years on and I am still travelling. Of course I have had problems but they have been a tiny proportion of the good times and with hindsight they are what make my journey interesting.<\/span><\/p>\n As you get older, your priorities change, and with retirement just that little bit closer it is important to consider the costs. I managed to average a daily spend of \u00a327 BUT that included everything \u2013 flights, travel insurance and some pretty special trips \u2013 for instance going to Machu Picchu<\/a><\/strong>. I have run some calculations and if I discount the extravagant things that I didn\u2019t need or if I had couch-surfed more often that figure would drop to \u00a321.<\/span><\/p>\n Personally, I would rather spend my old age in a tiny rented room with my memories and my photographs than in my own property surrounded by \u2018stuff\u2019. And so I am continuing to travel. <\/span><\/p>\n If you are older and you have no funds behind you, consider house-sitting<\/a><\/strong> as well as Couchsurfing<\/a><\/strong>. Do you have a skill that you could exchange on the road? Teach your native language or re-wire a house. There are whole communities based around work exchanges \u2013 you work just a few hours a day in exchange for accommodation and food. And let\u2019s be honest here \u2013 as an older person as well as having more life skills under your belt, people will often view you as more reliable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"DSC_4396\"](\"https:\/\/tomislavperko.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/DSC_4396-790x960.jpg\")
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