Wayfarer's world

I can now tell you from personal experience that there is a certain adrenaline rush to getting across international borders, particularly unfriendly ones. Its not fun, exactly. Actually, waiting for six hours in a croweded Syrian government building (they're about as nice as they sound like they would be) pretty much sucks. But when you're finally approved and allowed to pass the border into unfamiliar territory, there is definitely an adrenaline high.

It is my guess, that that high is what gave birth to today's backpacker, couch surfer, wayfarer generation. Most of you probably don't know what I mean. Apparently, there is a small contingent of international drifters that just float from country to country, continent to continent on the breath of whatever whim is carrying them that day. You meet them at bus stations, youth hostels, off-the-beaten-path-hole-in-the-wall restaurants that have the best food in the world, and pretty much anywhere the Lonely Planet guide book is sold. They're generally in their twenties, in college or holding a college degree, into studying language, culture and the unique selection of alcohol offered by each country. And they're always flat broke. They are the people that will happily throw a toothbrush, map and extra pair of jeans in a bag and spend three months hitchhiking through Asia with nothing else on them. They live on the rush of not necessarily knowing what country they'll be in tomorrow and definitely not two weeks from now.

There aren't very many of them out there. It takes a certain kind of person to leave the comforts of hot water and safe food to explore the world on a microscopic budget. At a hostel in Damascus a friend of mine who would definitely be classified as a wayfarer was flipping through a photo album of the hostel's previous guests and found a picture of a guy she had made friends with in Ethiopia when she was there teaching English last year. The backpacker's world is small, and they all are incredibly interesting and friendly so they tend to all know and keep in touch with one another.

I've done a lot of traveling for how young I am. I've visited something like 20 countries in the last 6 or 8 years. But up until this most recent trip to Syria and Lebanon, I've never understood the backpackers' way of seeing the world. I've met them, of course. They are all over college campuses and you run across them periodically at parties through friends of friends (they have a lot of friends, they like to have a geographically diverse array of couches to crash on when they need them). Unlike the backpackers, I've always traveled with family or a big group. I've always had money to stay in real hotels and see the sights that mainstream guide books say you can't miss. And I thought I was well traveled- I am well traveled. But I realized last week that if you travel with money you are not experiencing a country at all.

As a tourist you miss the real food they sell on the streets that might make you sick, but will taste so good its worth it. You miss the music and parties the locals throw when all the tourists have turned in for the night. But, most importantly, you miss the people. And a country isn't its great historical monuments, its finest restaurants, its beautiful scenery. A country is its people. So I'm sorry, but if you haven't taken an ancient bus from Nice to Venice and made friends with the Italian couple sitting next to you (which I haven't) you haven't seen Italy (good excuse to go back). If you haven't stayed in a hostel in Rio with the two expats who run the place, give tours and still manage to find time to make you breakfast in the morning, you haven't seen Brazil. If you haven't made friends with a undercover Syrian government agent (or some crazy dude who just says thats what he is) and had a deep and moving discussion about your people's misconceptions of his and his of yours, you haven't seen Syria. As a tourist, you don't have these experiences. As a backpacker, or wayfarer or whatever, you do.

You also meet other backpackers from all over the world who will, inevitably, invite you to visit them in their home countries, which, a true backpacker will inevitably do with very little notice or planning. Its a very cool way of life. Not necessarily the safest or smartest way of life, but very cool. It is definitely some thing I want to try after I graduate. I'm dying to see Africa and South America and I can't think of any way I can afford to do that without joining the wayfarer's world. I'm still looking for a travel partner if anyone's interested. I'll even let you choose the continent.

Love you all,
Caddie