I was just sitting on the patio at the lovely house I am living in knitting yet another beanie and could not help thinking about the reasons why people decide to go backpacking. I could only come up with some of them.
Why do people motivate themselves to cram their life in a 23kg backpack to travel around the world, live on pasta and soup, sleep in noisy, smelly, hostels with snoring or sleep talking drunk people, wear the same clothes till they look like something the cat dragged in, wake up next to somebody you cannot remember the name from, make hideous pictures, post them on Facebook and call it 'an amazing experience', call your parents cause you need more money to expand your cultural knowledge of the different kinds of beers you hostel bar is selling, add heaps of 'friends' on Facebook, go to every party where you can get free beer by playing games you would not even consider doing at home, apologize to your boyfriend the next day for the shocking pictures your 'friends' added you in on Facebook, jump from a bridge cause you suddenly have the courage to do so.
Snog numerous other backpackers from the other or same sex, take photos from this as well and explain your friends you try before you buy, fall desperately in love, ditch your travel friend, take off with the love of your life, discover he is not your knight in shining armor, spend more money to go back to your friend, make up with yet some more beers, jump on another plane to an even more exotic destination, get bitten by insects you cannot pronouns the names from, try to explain the doctor you are not an alcoholic you just need to wash your clothes, fall out of the bunk bed while having sex with your new catch, wake up all the people in the room by doing so, invite them for a 'Im sorry you saw me naked' beer, find a new hot guy, sleep with him in the lower part of the bunk bed, embarrass yourself in the pharmacy while answering the questions to get the morning after.
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Fall asleep on the street, wake up at the police station, explain yet again you are not an alcoholic, call your parents again for more money to spend on more cultural experiences, pretend to be a lesbian with your friend to shock guys, get into mud wrestling, feel guilty of not contacting home, try to post something serious on Facebook, drink more beer but do not forget the local beverages, jump out of a plane cause you are forced to do it, get drunk before you jump out of the plane, blame it on the guy who took you out drinking the night before for the lovely, sick photos of your jump, get really cold, curse every day about something ridiculous, get an extreme sunburn and tell everybody you always get that red before you gain color, complaint about the sunburn in secret to your mum.
Tell everybody you will catch up with them later, forget who you promised to catch up with, take more pictures of hot guys, get into a wet shirt contest, post serious stuff on your blog to keep the home front happy, decide you are not going home again, let your friend convince you of hunting a sheep, hook up with locals to get a free accommodation, tell your parents they should send you money if they want to have you home again, get on the plane and come back home completely broke, tired and with a weird sexual disease.
But this are just some of the reasons I could think of....
