A Home From Home

One of the aspects of our ‘Slowmad’ plans that excites me most is the idea of building an entirely new existence in a different land.

While we know we’ll still be returning to the UK regularly, and likely spending more time there than abroad for now, I love the thought of arriving in a now familiar town and seeing smiling faces that we recognise – and of course sharing a ‘vino tinto’ with them, finding out what they’ve been up to since we last saw them.

At first, meeting locals might feel like navigating a sea of small talk or transactional interactions – whether with a café owner or someone you meet in a local shop. But as time goes by, and we return to the same places, those initial encounters have the potential to blossom into real friendships.

As we spend more time in one place, I hope we can break through the superficial level of “tourist” and establish a genuine rapport, where locals begin to see us not just as passing travellers, but as people who genuinely value their culture and way of life.

Of course, the language is the biggest obstacle here, and there’s no real option other than buckling down and making a solid effort to learn it. Turning up to foreign land with the expectations of English being readily spoken isn’t actually unrealistic – we’re blessed in that it’s one of the most common languages in the world (a blessing, or is it a curse?), and as a result you can usually get away with it pretty much anywhere. If you resort to that though, you’ll forever be a tourist.

I imagine that excited feeling at the airport, knowing we’re about to fly back to a place where a whole new group of friends are waiting for us – people we can’t wait to see again when we finally return to town and make that grand entrance into the local cafe/bar! It’s more than just travel, more than sightseeing, and even more than the slowmad lifestyle. Each return will feel like picking up right where we left off.

Welcome home!