Backpacking is a particular type of travel. It is something for those with a severe case of wanderlust because it is a lifetime commitment. Not everyone is made for life on the road. Being constantly on the road requires skills — to find travel resources — and sacrifices — because you will often have to give up on comfort.
Below are behaviors commonly displayed by backpackers. If you recognized yourself in any of these, it might be a sign that you are a backpacker at heart.
1. You constantly laugh at people that are overly worried about travel advisories and country warnings.
2. You look down on people with large luggage because everything you own, literally, fits in a backpack.
3. The only souvenirs you care about are the ones that fit on your body (t-shirts, bracelets, rings, etc.)
4. Bed is wherever you pass out.
5. Airbnb is a luxury. I mean $98 a night is your weekly budget.
6. A night at the airport or the bus station is an accommodation option like any other.
7. You can’t remember the last time you slept alone in a room.
8. You choose your travel destinations according to whether or not you know someone in town on whose couch you can crash on.
9. Your travel plans have “visa run” factored into the itinerary because, yeah, you know what that means.
10. Figuring out what to put down as a permanent address is a tougher mind teaser than solving the Fermat’s Last Theorem.
11. You change passports often, not because of expiration dates but because you run out of stamp pages.
12. Flying anything else than Ryanair or Easyjet is like a first-class upgrade.
13. You daily food allowance is $5 top.
14. You have more different world currencies in your pocket than a forex agency.
15. Your diet revolves around pasta, and you can cook it under all forms and shapes.
16. You can say cheers in at least 5 different languages.
17. You keep track of the day of the week according to the deals in local bars.
18. You’d gladly give up food and live on love alone if it means more money for booze.
19. You make a new best friend almost everyday.
20. You remember people by their places of origin rather than their names. Hey there, miss Alabama!
21. Your friends back home have their fridges decorated with awesome postcards from around the world…. and they (secretly) hate you for it.
22. You have a flipflop, tanktop, and/or sunglasses permanent tan.
23. Free Wi-Fi is a deciding factor in most of your travel accommodations
24. In fact, whenever you read “free” you don’t care much about what follows or what it implies.
25. You don’t mind working your way to get free stuff. (bed, food, transport, etc.)
26. You wear less than 3 different shirts in the month.
27. Sniffing out shirts is a legit validator of their cleanliness.
28. You are an expert at changing clothes in the dark, at the light of a smartphone screen, without waking anyone up.
29. You do NOT know what the red knob in the shower is for.
30. Shaving regularly would take too much time out of your busy schedule.
31. Finding a few squirts left in a shampoo / shower gel bottle make you feel like…
32. You compare a career in a 9-5 job to a death sentence.
Do you recognize yourself in these signs? Do you think we missed some? Tell us about it in the comments.
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