Travel Mate or Horror Companion

'It's easier to find a travelling companion than to get rid of one'

- Art Buchwald

Two might be one to many: Backpacking & Travelling Companion

Im selfish, I want to do what I want to do, I want to see things I want to see and if I have the opportunity to travel alone, I will travel alone. This first sentence sounds like I am one of these socially awkward people, an 'Einzelgänger' and impossible travel companion. But nothing could be further from the truth. I enjoy both, I love both and like to combine both. During my stay in Thailand, about a year ago, I travelled alone around this country and it was wonderful. After a couple of months in New Zealand with travellers and backpackers around me 24/7 it was just delightful to be on my own, to enjoy the silence, the beauty of my surroundings and living my life and only my life. I did notice the easiness of meeting travel buddies, travel companions or travel mates which seems, in my opinion, way less complex than when you are travelling with somebody already. It's like you send out a scent, a sign for people to detect, the indication of solitary. And suddenly you are not alone anymore, your solitude is over..... you find a travel bud.

Travel Companions, Travel Buddies and Travel Mates: Online and Offline

As I said before, I have the feeling that solo travellers send out a message to fellow travellers and suddenly contacts are way easier made than at home, than in every - day life. It might be the fact that all these people do the same thing, are in the same boat and therefore become 'friends', travel friends. For me this is a well known phenomenon as I have seen this happen many times before, but for many 'beginning' travellers and backpackers it is a nightmare to even consider travelling alone. It is therefore good to know we have something called the internet, a connecting people network where 'soon-to-become' travellers can find other backpackers and arrange trips and meet-ups months or weeks before departure. As I am searching for travellers that want to join my three exclusive and affordable bus tours in New Zealand I have found some good websites although one website developed itself as my favourite.

Find a Travel Companion: Find My Travel Mate

For me it was sad to see that many websites ask money for contacting fellow travellers. The sign up is for free, the searching as well but as soon as you find the perfect person to travel with these websites poor rain on your parade. Good to know that there is one website My Travel Mate that does not do this. This start-up makes it possible for you to create your trip, with all details included, and promote this trip on the My Travel Mate website. As I am searching for some 'travel buddies' I signed up, created a trip, added some pictures and tried out if this could work. And yes, it does. I am not one of these people that goes around to promote other websites, except my own, but My Travel Mate is something that makes me happy in a virtual world, with 100000 travel buddies websites and forums make it impossible for me to find one that has it all. My Travel Mate does this and therefore I would like to thank this website for making my life easier. And of course I recommend this platform to every traveller who wants to meet people, its easy, its fast and even better.... for free!!! 

Are you looking for somebody to travel with? Go Bacon and Eggs Tours for New Zealand and check My Travel Mate in any other case ;) 

To be or not to be..... a backpacker

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.

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....