Recently I was thinking - what is "traveling" anyway?
It so happened that probably a third of all my articles one way or another relate to me going somewhere and photographing something. And you can't even imagine that 5 years ago I first got on a plane, and moving to Czech Republic was generally my first trip abroad.
Actually, at that time I was quite sure that travel wasn't my thing. 90% of my peers by that time had been somewhere, anywhere. And I in 5 years of living in Moscow hadn't really been anywhere except the southwest where I studied.
But with the appearance of Instagrams and VKontaktes it became clear - everyone loves to travel and take photos (and also snowboards and food).
I was quite sure that travel is such a pop thing, and at that time I was strongly against pop. And, I'll be honest with you, travel is quite pop. If you do it unconsciously, you won't get anything from it.
And now, after five years I understand that seeing the world is a necessity in today's world. Simply because only this will help develop a critical view of life.
But think - why does everyone travel, but there's still nothing to tell about the world? It seems to me that the whole thing is that not everyone realizes what travel is.
There can be many opinions on this. There are people who come to a city\country, buy shawarma, sit in the center or go to the beach. Such crap will appeal to few, and today I'll tell you how to get a kick from traveling.
The first and main point - you need to understand what exactly makes travel meaningful for YOU.
So, for example, someone travels eating - until they finish local food, the trip doesn't count. Someone photographs cities and countries, someone lies in them and doesn't move, and for someone travel doesn't count as travel if they don't, sorry, fuck a foreign country.
Each person is different, but everyone should understand what exactly is their systematic approach.
So, for example, Tema Lebedev sets a goal to visit the whole world, sometimes a checkmark is enough for him. And also his eye is trained and he instantly sees all the features of a country, even the smallest details.
And I was thinking for a long time - what do I do? What's my thing?
And nothing came to my mind better than that I consider travel as travel only when I write about it. My thing is to take tons of photos of everything, come home, look through all photos a hundred times, choose 20-30 best and tell you about them. Somewhere architecture makes an impression on me, somewhere typography, somewhere women atmosphere.
Basically, until I write about a country - it's as if I wasn't there. Such a thing.
Next time before going somewhere - think about what it means for you to travel. And don't stress too much if it seems to you that eating a new ice cream or going shopping doesn't sound cool enough - let it be your thing.