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They say ‘the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.’
Well, one of my latest journeys began with me desperately running down a crowded station platform in Moscow, horrifically hungover, massive suitcase in tow, sweat dripping off me as I tried not to miss my 20-hour journey in an equally hot and sweaty Russian train. Not quite as poetic.
Tree-lined avenue in Weimar
During my recent trip to Russia in May 2013 – and in particular on the 20-hour train back to Moscow – I got thinking about journeys, and the lengths we will go to to visit certain places. Plenty of people these days will tell you that getting somewhere is an ‘adventure’ and that the journey is all part of the fun, and even the excellent Frank Turner says “If you’re all about the destination, then taking a fucking flight.”
However, when you’ve been sat for seven hours on a megabus covering the three-hour train ride from Manchester to Edinburgh, that ‘fucking flight’ looks fairly tempting.
So how can we tell when somewhere is worth the journey?
Barren landscape of the Kalmyk Republic
On my trip to Russia, I flew Manchester-Moscow on Easyjet’s new budget route. During my stay, I got a 20-hour long train to Volgograd to stay with a friend. While in Volgograd, we did a day-long excursion to Elista, which was five hours away by bus. Overall, I spent 50 hours travelling to visit two cities – after a total of eight hours of flying to Moscow.
I’d be lying if I said that this huge amount of travelling for just two destinations hadn’t left me feeling as though I needed to justify the journey – there was a bit of added pressure to ‘get the most out of it’, or to really love the place. On the train in the 30+ heat, I did find myself thinking ‘what am I doing?’
Now, I’ve done awkward journeys to visit friends before – my trip to Venice involved two airlines and four different airports – but 50 hours is a long time.
Was it difficult, tiring and uncomfortable? Definitely. Was it worth it? Of course.
Volgograd and Elista were two cities I’d wanted to visit for a long time – particularly Elista, which has to be one of the most fascinating places I’ve been to in the last few years. Ten hours is a very long time to spend of a hot bus in one day, but I reasoned that I was in a corner of Europe I’d probably never visit again – how could I miss it? And I’m very glad I didn’t.
So how did I know it would be worth the journey? I didn’t, but I knew the regret of not going would be far worse than the discomfort of getting there. And while I wouldn’t be in a rush to repeat the whole experience and I can’t pretend I enjoyed the journey or that it didn’t affect how I felt during the whole trip, I know that for me, the destination was more than worth it.
What hellish journeys have you gone through in the name of travel? Were they worth it?
Try this: after travelling around Ecuador and Peru, needed to be back in Guayaquil for our flight home. Cue a 28 hour (!!) bus from Lima, quick night’s sleep, then morning flight Guayaquil>Miami, few hour wait, flight to New York, then finally home to London. I forget how many hours the flights were, but once finally home I felt broken…