Falling in Love with travel romance

 

 "In a world where there is so much sadness and so much to be afraid of, good things do happen to people. Romance is still something we can find even if we're not consciously looking for it"

 

 

 

Given that I can confidently say that my most stable relationship until now it has been with my faithful backpack, I should be the last person to write about romance. On the other hand, I may be actually the only person that can brutally tell you how it REALLY is because I'm lucky to have experienced romances that make you want to start jumping up and down and start clapping your hands.


I have met the dirty backpacker, the romantic dreamer, the exotic local…you name it!

 I feel like I am that great book with a disappointing end (because good romance never end well). I dare you to keep reading and to accompany me in the fascinating yet complicated world of feelings that get multiplied by thousand when they are experienced under a full moon on a Thai beach or a kiss stolen on a pool with the Sri Lankan sea as testimony or a tender hug surrounded by beautiful paintings creation of an exotic man that whispers words in your ear in a strange language that sounds like music

 Romance travels with each of you. You may not know that but it does, is like that silent companionship that is always right behind you, it may be too discreet to notice but then, it just appears. It does it fiercely and you can 't ignore it because romance is strong, is addictive and deep down, you know you have always dreamt with the moment that it will break your plans into tiny pieces of happiness and there won’t be a tomorrow that will be the same as the day you left behind. Romance changes everything.

 I have always been too focused on being a responsible backpacker. Yes, I went in search of adventures and I looked for them but I was determined not to be distracted, I did not know back then that romance was walking right behind me. I set my mind on discovering a world that presented itself scary at a times, of an extreme beauty, full of uncertain places, with unknown flavours and smells, with curious eyes, of exotic languages, of a beautiful diversity of skin colours, of good hearted people, of moments that put me to the limit and taught me that we are all, without exceptions, surprising human beings with strengths much bigger that we think we possess.

 Romance appeared in my travels on very inconvenient days; I happened to be often tired, affected by bad bus journeys, dirty and looking in urgent need of a shower, mostly in bad spirits. Maybe that is what caused it, the fact that I was not looking for it. How many times we have all heart that good things happen when you least expect them? Wise words, they happened to be true for me.

 

 

I will share with you this very precious moment of one of my recent trips because when I think about it, I have a smile on my face and made me very happy.

 Sri Lanka presented itself like a place that I couldn’t quite manage to figure out. I was blessed with magical moments but I also found several challenges while travelling. This day, right at the end of my last week there, I took two buses to get from Polonnaruwa to Uppuveli. My day already started bad; a monkey stole my banana which it happened to be my only precious breakfast while visiting the ancient site in Polonnaruwa, where I was taking a break from the extreme heat as I rented a bicycle and cycling was proving harder than climbing Kilimanjaro! On the first bus the driver was completely suicidal and I spent hours on that bus, while cramped on the corridor among hundreds of locals, believing that I would die before I could reach the sea side and I kept praying to all God names I could remember while feeling like crying for the entire journey to the delight of the locals as I was providing them with free entertainment with my terrified facial expressions.

 By the time I got on the second bus, the one suicidal was me. I looked around (once again I was cramped on the bus corridor) and I could see this other tourist that was enjoying the bus ride as much as I was. Two backpackers united by desperation…I almost died earlier; he was almost dying of pain as his legs were touching his chin from where he was seating. What a great bus journey that was.

To a dreadful day followed a wonderful night. Romance decided to appear on a day where two people were consume by exhaustion, tired of the journey and yet grateful of the final destination. At long last, the sea.

 

 What unites two backpackers? Is not mystery, it is what unites every single being; conversation. But conversation between backpackers is intense. There is a sense of empathy, a desire to be honest, to open yourself to that stranger, there are no boundaries and I felt that every word was pronounced with true passion.

 I felt truly connected. Could it be that I spent the last few weeks traveling alone? Yes, definitely. I felt immensely happy to be talking to this man and I badly wanted to tell him that he was the best thing that happened to me in a long time, I wanted to tell him how lonely I felt until then. Instead, we spoke of our lives and it felt liberating, there were no judgements at all and that took the conversation to magical places.

 We swam at night, when the world was sleep we ran to the sea, threw our clothes to the sand and swam. I could see a curtain of stars in the sky, the sky didn't feel real, so extreme was its beauty that it brought tears to my eyes and I thanked God for giving me that moment of magic. I was happy. In that precise moment on time, I felt happier than ever before. 

 Suddenly, he told me excitedly to look at the water. That moment was too beautiful to make it justice with words. The water was full of sparkling lights and I thought I was dreaming. Was that real? I was swimming with stars, there were in the sky and on my feet. I wondered…was that moment real or happiness brought me to an imaginary world of beauty?

 

 

 It's called bioluminescence and there is a scientific explanation for it but never mind that then because the moment was unique and I felt blessed. Then, right there and then I thought that no matter what life would throw at me, no one and nothing would take that moment away from me.

And we made love and it was beautiful and passionate . 

 Only when you are so far away from your world, you can feel with such intensity.

I dare you to go out to the world and experience intensity like this. Life is fascinating and so is the world. GO