I came across a funny picture on Facebook the other day. It was a picture showing 9 types of travelers. Incredibly fun illustrations accompanied the text, but I wasn't really attached to the image itself. I stuck with the type of traveler that I actually am. So I did a little research on my own. What kind of traveler do I think I really am?
1. The planner
I'm good at planning. Before a trip, I read and draw and write and plan and mess around and think. I usually plan travel routes and both hotels and restaurants in advance. What I'm bad at planning are activities. I don't want to book myself on what to do during the day. The weather may be bad, someone may feel crass or we may find something exciting along the way. I'm a bit too changeable to be able to plan the days in detail. But by being prepared and well-travelled, it usually turns out well anyway. Although my aversion to pre-booking museums meant I accidentally missed the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam and almost missed the Pena Palace in Sintra.
So I have to say CHECK at this.
2. The Master Planner
Depends on how you look at it? See the picture above :)
3. The risk taker
Note me! Here you will not find any skydiving. Our hikes are always well prepared and with good equipment, so I don't count that as risk taking. However, you can almost count my attempt to eat the cakes below as a serious health risk?
4. The overpacker
Could be me! If we're going to travel in three different climate zones and I'm allowed to take 30 kg with me, I usually have it. But I'm just as good at traveling with hand luggage only.
5. The photographer
Hahaha! Guilty! This is me in a nutshell. When I discover a new place, I can't go straight ahead, but I turn around at regular intervals - because what if the views in the other direction are better than the ones in front of me... I photograph a lot. Here on the blog I don't show the best and artistic of my travel photos, here I try to show informative photos that take you to the place and the feeling of being there. The images are not over-edited, brown-filtered or desaturated, but rather "raw". For me, traveling means experiencing all colors and shapes.
Would you like to see some of my more artistic pictures? I've just started building a portfolio. Look into evagyllenberg.com so you'll see what I'm up to :)
Definitely one CHECK on this one too.
6. The day driver
Absolutely not me. For the first time in my life, I have had a few days off without having anything planned. You can state that it is bad for me. I started watching a show on Netflix with the Japanese Marie Kondo who goes around cleaning and organizing the lives of messy Americans. Now I have arranged my wardrobe according to the Kon-Marie method. Oh my, I don't feel good about that only be off…
7. The perpetually late
Not me! I'm always early! I rather get stressed by people who are always late.
8. The Adventurer
We love being out in nature and hiking. Good hiking shoes and a backpack on the back filled with coffee (with milk), sandwiches, some small sweets and lots of water. It doesn't have to be more advanced than that. Our best adventures? It must be our hikes in national parks and nature reserves in Canada (British Columbia), where we saw more black bears than people. But I have also loved all our other hikes in, for example, the Alps, in the mountains of New Zealand, in the rainforest of Queensland and in the desert of the southwestern United States. There is something about the silence and stillness of nature that appeals to me.
Definitely CHECK at this.
9. The Instagram crawler
Could maybe happen? Filters are incredibly fun and sometimes you just happen to have a waterfall in Iceland behind you. Things like that happen :)
Hmmmm, will probably also be one CHECK at this.
So what was the result?
I became a 1, 5, 8 and (partly) 9! Wonder if my dear travel companions agree? :)
So, what did you become?
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Haha, I thought it said that you usually bring a liter of sweets with you :)
Haha, wasn't that what I wrote?! Should have been!!
And forgot to write: great pictures both on the page/insta and your new site?
Thank you! Didn't think it would appear that I fiddled with the site a bit! Did it at the same time I cleaned out the closet with Kon-Marie! ?
Haha, got exactly the same numbers for me :D
Haha – and we like the same type of destination! Epic! ???
Fun thing! I was 1, 2, 5 and 9. Would love to be 8 too but can't take the rest of the family on a real hike and not as much fun doing it myself. (Although there would probably be even more silence and stillness if I were myself :-) .)
On the 8th, I sometimes get to pry/bribe the youngest with extra good candy or a good ice cream after a hike. But everyone is always super happy and satisfied afterwards! :)
By the way, would you define me as a 2nd too, or what is it that makes you overplan? :)
I probably overplan mostly because I think it's so much fun to plan. I can't seem to stop googling the various destinations, clicking on all the links, writing everything down in lists and reorganizing the lists from time to time. :-) It was almost easier before everything was on the Internet, then you read a travel guide and that was fine. One thing I plan that I never planned before is more precisely where we will eat when we travel. Nowadays I make lists of restaurants in different areas that I think we will be in when it is time for food. This is precisely because we have found ourselves in situations where we are terribly hungry but cannot agree on a place to eat because everyone has different tastes. So now I even check the menus in advance if they are available on the restaurants' websites. :-) It can probably be called over-planning... :-)
Great pictures on both of your sites!!! I'm probably 1, 5 and 8 I think. Now I don't know how adventure is defined here, but I myself think of both bigger and smaller adventures, experiences of different kinds :)
Thank you so much for the kind words please!!! Going to fix up my evagyllenberg site, so maybe I can even do something meaningful with the pictures :) "Adventure" was defined as a woman who had a backpack on her back and looked like she was going out hiking. No other details were given, but I immediately clicked on it! :)
Haha, cool post! You realize quite quickly what kind of person you are :). I'm probably a combination of (4) the overpacker, (5) the photographer and (8) the adventurer.
It's good sometimes to reflect on your own journey! :) I realize that I become more and more the "photographer" the older my daughter gets...