10 Lessons I Learned Travelling the World for 5 Months
I left my life and it changed dramatically - here's everything I learned
“Your life will change once you travel” is all I was told my whole life.
I didn’t believe it.
How could my life change by going on holiday? It sounded a little idealistic for my logical mind.
But when I walked out of the gates of my office job for the last time, I had no idea the impact it’d have on me.
In the last 5 months, Georgia and I have been from Germany to Portugal, through Spain and Italy, Croatia, Albania and my home country, Türkiye. There were moments of beauty, chaos, sadness, overwhelming joy, surprise, anger and more that gave me a return on investment that I could’ve never predicted.
We’re finally back in Brisbane, and I decided to condense all the things I’ve learned, and the notes I’ve taken on my phone, into these 10 lessons.
They’re truly life-changing.
Lesson 1 | My life is someone else’s dream
I went into a convenience store in Lisbon to buy a lighter. It was $2.50.
I started chatting to the owner, cracked a few jokes and we became friends and he lowered the price to $2.
While we were doing the transaction, he asked me where I was from.
“Australia.” — I replied.
Wow — Australia. That is my dream country.
Your dream country? You mean the place I was so bored of that I had to escape for 5 months, is your dream destination? The place I was born and raised in is the place you dream of getting to one day?
My absolutely bare-bones starting point is this guy’s end goal. Let that sink in.
In Konya (Türkiye), I was being helped out by a waiter. Georgia was sick so he was helping me carry the food up to the hotel room. As we were going up the floors, he asked me what it was like to live in Australia.
“Good, I guess. I don’t really have any problems, I make enough to pay rent and food, and still have some cash in my pocket.”
He looked at me like I was speaking about some kind of Utopia.
And that’s when it really sunk in.
There are people all over the world who’d work a job cleaning toilets to be in Australia. Cleaning would pay more than the degree they earned at university could get them, and give them a better overall life.
They’d trade the life they’ve built to start again in a country without a corrupt (or as corrupt) government that steals their money. They’d put all their chips in to light their degree up in flames and work a random job to be in the place that I’m ungrateful for.
It’s not their fault, nor mine — I just so happened to be born here because my ancestors immigrated from Türkiye.
So sometimes, you need to look at your life objectively and realise there are others out there who’d do anything to trade places with you.
I know it seems like cliche advice, but I don’t think you truly understand it until you see someone look into your eyes and tell it to you.
So please, take it on.
Lesson 2 | Don’t expect. Wonder instead.
Every time I expected things to be a certain way, I was wrong.
I expected Porto to be quaint and quiet — turns out it was rammed with American and British tourists…
I expected Cappadocia to be a tourist hot spot — and it was one of the most peaceful and quiet places we found.
The days I expected to be easy, were the toughest. And the days I was worried about for weeks went by like a breeze.
The food I thought I would love was disgusting, and the things I never thought I’d like were delicious.
The conversations I didn’t expect much of were the most profound, and the moments I expected to be profound were dull.
You’re not omnipotent — you can’t predict the future. So, to make things easier, try having a bit more wonder in your life instead of expectation.
“I expect it to be this way.” → The result leads to either a positive or negative outcome depending on whether or not your prediction was accurate.
“I wonder what it’ll be!” → The result is either neutral or positive since you had no preconceived expectations.
No disappointment is possible when you reframe it.
Plus, it’s more fun and childlike to wonder instead of expect. Expecting is pointless.
Lesson 3 | It always works out
When travelling, things go wrong all the time. You’re constantly put into stressful situations, ones that feel dire at times.
But one thing I learned from consistently being in difficult situations is that you always get through them.
As long as you have health and vitality, there’s no problem too difficult to overcome.
Are there hard moments and shitty days that you wish you could fast-forward? Yes, of course.
But whenever Georgia and I were in a sticky situation, we’d look at each other and say:
It always works out.
And it always did.
Lesson 4 | Being away shows you what’s important
When you’re living your regular life, everything seems all muddled together.
But when you’re away from your friends, your family, your career and your regular life, you start to see what you miss, and what you don’t.
The things that are important float to the surface of your attention — like little bits of gnocchi cooking in boiling water.
It shows you which parts of your life you can throw away, and which deserve even more attention.
These are the gnocchis that floated up to the top of the pot for me:
Family — I want to see my sisters and my parents more often. These are the most important people in my life and who knows when they’ll be taken away from me.
My two best friends — I want to go on weekend getaways with my friends, the guys who made me into a man, the ones who I can trust.
My hobbies — I want to invest more time into things I love to do.
My health — I want to take care of my health more. Without health we have nothing.
Creation — I want to spend more time making things, instead of consuming things.
So, take a break and look at your life objectively every now and then - it gives you a lot of clarity.
Lesson 5 | Mundane is beautiful
I missed a lot of things about regular life while I was backpacking, but this one was probably the most surprising.
When Georgia and I would reflect on what we were excited to go back to, I thought we would’ve said something about food, maybe something about having money coming in or having our whole wardrobes back, but it was none of those.
We were most excited about the morning coffee before work together. I couldn’t wait to sit at my desk to write before work. I couldn’t wait to ride my bike to the office. I missed heading to the gym at 5 o’clock. I even missed grabbing the spices from my spice rack and using my wooden spoon to stir the dinner.
I missed the little things — the seemingly mundane.
I learned that a routine isn’t a bad thing — it’s satisfying and peaceful. I love rituals and I believe ‘routine’ is a boring word for ritual.
There’s something fulfilling about completing what’s beneficial for you, daily, like clockwork.
That autonomy delivers peace in its own weird way.
So, even when it gets boring, try to remember to enjoy the process.
Lesson 6 | You get what you put out
When you’re popping into new cities (especially ones without many tourists), you’re interesting to people and they ask questions about your life. It always leads to amazing conversation.
But it got me thinking — do I need to be a foreigner (or speak to a foreigner) to strike up a good conversation? Probably not. This is an easy-mode conversation, a free icebreaker.
But I could easily ask these same questions to people in Australia.
We go through life so closed in, even so far as to order coffees through apps…
What happened to human connection? What happened to asking the barista how their day was going?
Whenever we’d go to a new country, I not only learned how to say “Hello”, but also added on “How are you today?”
We were shocked at how much it improved peoples’ days.
It seemed like nobody had asked how they were all week. And it always led to a conversation.
You don’t have to craft some intricate compliment or talking point — a simple…
Wie geht es dir?
Kako si?
Si jeni?
Nasılsın?
goes a long way.
If you’re interested in people, you’ll meet interesting people!
Lesson 7 | The world is incomprehensibly large (and why that’s a good thing)
I met Turkish horse tamers, Albanian nail artists, Croatian ice cream servers, Spanish Pizza Chefs, and Portuguese artists.
I walked through the streets of Istanbul where any corner you turn is rammed with tens of thousands of people who are all living their own lives.
Every plane you hop on - to and from any destination - is pretty much always full. I got on a flight from Antalya, Türkiye to Bucharest, Romania at 2 am and it was full for god’s sake.
There are that many people in the world. It’s mind-blowing.
I tried to imagine all of those people, and how they live life through their own eyes, exactly as you or I do. Can you believe that? Millions…billions of perspectives living exactly as we do.
Although my life is my lived experience, I’m not the centre.
Think of yourself as a fraction in this world. You’re 1/7888000000th = 1.2690355e-10. That’s small.
Do I believe each person is a crucial piece to the puzzle of humanity? Yes. But all those days stressing about my life direction, my corporate position and things like that, is time wasted.
You and I are just one small fraction that makes up the whole world, so let’s try and enjoy our time here.
Let’s try to focus on making our little pocket of the world better, without taking ourselves too seriously.
Lesson 8 | Our way isn’t the only way
The Western world doesn’t have it all figured out.
What I learned from being in different countries, and seeing different economic positions, was that there are numerous ways to be ‘successful’.
You don’t have to work an office job.
There’s a community of master craftsmen who create prayer beads called ‘tesbih’ - they make a living by carving materials like wood, precious stone and animal bone, into beads and selling them.
There are people who deal the tesbihs - buy them and sell them at a profit.
There are people who sell their own pottery
Other people sell their handmade arts and crafts
And even people running bike rental stores.
There are an infinite number of ways to go about living life and being successful.
So, although an office job can be suited for some, or a great stable income while you explore your passions, it’s not the only way. And that goes for other parts of life too.
The foods you eat, the sports you play, the hobbies you enjoy. There are loads of different ways to enjoy life that are different from what you’re used to.
So always remember, your way isn’t the only way.
Lesson 9 | People are what make the world interesting
I saw many amazing historical monuments and museums, but the real memories that stuck with me were the people we met.
It’s not the horse ride in Cappadocia that I remember, it’s the horse trainer telling us about the love of his life that lives in Kansas. She visits him, and they ride their horses out into the volcanic fossil valleys and camp under the stars — in love.
It wasn’t the paddle-boarding tour that I remember about Lagos, it was the guide, David, telling us about how he cycled across the world with his wife. The stories of the different places they went, fighting against the clock to cross different borders and what he learned from the experiences.
It’s not the Pula amphitheatre I remember — it’s Žana’s little art store where we learned about her lived experience and got advice about life.
Forget about all your achievements and career goals — without people, it’s nothing.
Why do you think people start their acceptance speeches by thanking all of the people who helped them get there? Because the award isn’t about the trophy, it’s about the relationships you built and the memories you created together.
It’s deeply embedded within us to be interested in people. It’s the only way you can truly progress as a society.
Lesson 10 | Sometimes, nothing’s wrong — you need to step outside
Life was confusing and emotional before I left.
I needed to “figure it out.”
But little did I know, I already had it figured out — I just needed some time away to gain some perspective, and to see my gnocchis float to the top.
I needed to see the world to remind me that I’m only a small fraction of it.
When you’re stuck in your everyday loop, you have no perspective. It’s like you’re in a house and you’re looking through a window — you can’t see the house.
But if you walk outside, you can see the whole thing. The facade, the shape, the colour of the house, the size, the pros and cons. You can see the house for what it is — what you like, and what you want to change.
But most of all, you see you’ve got a house. And that’s pretty great in itself.
Summary
So, here are the 10 lessons summarised:
My life is someone else’s dream
Don’t expect. Wonder instead.
It always works out
Being away shows you what’s important
Mundane is beautiful
You get what you put out
The world is incomprehensibly large
Our way isn’t the only way
People are what make the world interesting
Sometimes, nothing’s wrong — you need to step outside
And there it is. I’ve saved you $ 15,000 and 5 months of your life…
Only joking.
Your 5 months will be (or have been) completely different, and you’ll learn a series of lessons that I couldn’t even dream of.
It’s amazing what can change within your brain when you leave your regular life.
I hope you can find some use out of these 10 lessons.
Thank you for reading!
Send me some of your best lessons from travelling, or from taking a break — I’d love to discuss.
Sincerely,
Eren