Saying goodbye

I've been travelling for a while now and saying goodbye is always hard and painful. Especially after spending such a great and intense time. Laura, Sofia and Joonas had to leave on the 28th in the morning to make their way to the next destination. We were all having a good time at the bar listening to great live music and around 10pm the Finns got up and said: It's time for us to go! So we all got up, shake hands, hug, kisses, good word, farewell my friends, more then welcome if you ever come by, safe travels and so on. It lasted about 5 minutes, no tears, only smiles and a profound feeling. Feeling of what, I'm still trying to figure out what it is.

Travel friendships are so intense, so real and usually quite short. Every travellers knows there will be many good friends along the journey and are open to it. You meet people in a matter of seconds, in a matter of hour you know pretty much everthing, and then you spend a couple of days with those amazing people and it will end the same way it started. As simple as life goes on.

But this time it was still hard to see them go so Yasmin, Florian and me decided it was time for another round plus Tequila shooters to kill the pain. Seeing our good friends leave just like brought the mood down and  we where not about to let that happen. Well it did worked out and so the night went on.

I certainly think that I won't find many group of 6 people so tight but I can certainly hope.

This situation certainly bring up the question why aren't we able to socialize with people back home? Are we scared of social contacts, rejection or something like that? Let me explain how I've meet these people and if you compare those situation to our normal living environment, it's quite different. Laura: I've meet her at the travel office of Sagada. Waiting in line behind her, I've noticed she was by herself so I just said: Hey, you're travelling alone? Want to spend the day with me? Well it ended up being 4 days plus a week!
Sofia & Joonas: I made my way to the hostel Laura told me to go. I drop my stuff and so on. I see this guy coming up the stair. He says to me: Are you Laura's friend. Indeed I am. Well I'm Joonas (shake hands) I'm Antoine, pleasure.
Florian & Yasmin: I was walking along a path with two other people and I saw this couple walking in the same diretion. Hey guys, where are ou going? We don't know we're just walking. Cool. And so we've walked together! As simple as that.

I personnaly don't think those situation would apply at home, but because I'm an optimist in life, I'll try back home!

To Laura, Sofia, Joonas, Yasmin and Florian, thanks for the amazing time, safe travels and farewell. 

Antoine