Instagram Travel Vs. Real Travel
One of my favorite things to do when planning a trip is to take to Instagram. I love the airy, artsy photos from those wonderful people who can somehow take an entire photo studio with them across the world (not being sarcastic -- my saved photos are filled with them). Although, as someone who has traveled a fair amount, I know there is so much more to those photos than meets the eye.
Examples galore from my own Instagram:
Photo:
Insta Caption: We are in the process of collecting cool stories to tell our future children someday
Actually: I didn't think of our future children once that day (oops). On this day, we arrived in Zhangjiajie after a 14 hour overnight train ride. We got so lost trying to find our hostel that we got a taxi to take us two blocks (literally, TWO BLOCKS). We ate peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast and lunch to save money. We arrived to the National Forest hours later than anticipated. We went on a hour-long hike toward a "Monkey Village" (as the sign said) only to find three CAGED monkeys. [We did see wild monkeys later on.. long story..]
This photo was achieved by waiting patiently for a group of people from Luxenberg to take at least 50 group photos, then jumping into the corner [corners = prime photo-taking space, in my opinion] and throwing our camera to our travel buddies to hurry and take a nice pic before other tourists crowded too close to get a good shot. It was definitely a story-collecting trip, but not the romantic kind as the photo/caption combo would lead one to believe.
Photo:
(Venice, Italy)
Actually: Steps to achieving this photo: 1. Take upwards of 30 selfies with husband on Venetian bridge. 2. After you leave said bridge, decide you don't like any of those 30 selfies. Convince husband to go back for more selfies. 3. Take 30 more selfies. Decide you still don't like any of them. 4. Ask stranger to take photo of the two of you. 5. Hand very expensive camera to stranger. 6. Decide you don't like stranger's photos of you both, either. 7. Ask husband to take picture of you. 8. Well-ah!
Photo:
Insta Caption: Rainy days call for roof-hammocking of the prettiest variety
Actually: Max and I were hanging our laundry.. that caption didn't sound as nice.
I love traveling, because it's not "Instagram filtered". I love that every place is new -- new cultures, new foods, new accents, new roadways, new adventure and new challenges. Things rarely work out exactly as we plan them, and the moments that catch me off-guard are the moments I learn the most about myself and about the world around me.
Oh, and here I go, glamorizing again. Yes, I have many moments that I learn from. I also have moments (like yesterday when a two-hour bus ride turned into a four and a half hour bus ride) that are just plain annoying. It happens.
I will probably continue to unapologetically fill my Instagram with my photoshopped images and my happy captions, but I won't be pretending that my or anyone else's Instagram is anything like real life.
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