In this blog post, I have listed 20 things that you will realize and experience when you return home, Weather you have been gone for 2 weeks, 2 months or more. Reality will hit hard, and you have to push through and plan that next trip!

1. Not having to deal with snorers in hostel dorms is HEAVENLY
Because it means you don’t have to try and fall asleep before that person every night.

2. You’ll actually miss sleeping on a bunkbed
Turns out there’s nothing quite like the crazy fear that you’ll either fall to your death (if you were top bunk) or be crushed to death (if you were bottom bunk).

3. You walk round your room naked a lot
Because you CAN.

4. Everything is expensive
You’re used to getting a full meal for the price of milk, not spending two hours of minimum wage work on one single meal out.

5. “Which was your favourite place?”
Gets asked ALL THE TIME, as if you’re actually supposed to be able to answer. Look, I lived in China, I swam with turtles in Indonesia, I swam in a volcano in Cambodia, I biked down a mountain into Alaska and now I’m in preparing for yet another trip with no end date. I can’t pick just one favourite place or one favourite memory, it’s impossible.

6. The thought of finding a job is soul destroying
The concept of a routine 9-5 job just doesn’t work for you these days.

7. So is having $100 to your name
I thought memories were supposed to be priceless? These ones were far from it.

8. You’ve forgotten social etiquette
You didn’t remember the death stares you get for daring to even smile at a stranger. You’re still in hostel-mode, which means anyone, and everyone is a potential best friend, and you smile at everyone.

9. You carry too much in your handbag
You’ve been used to carrying all your worldly possessions around on your back. One bag on the front and one on the back looking like the turtle. You just don’t feel ‘you’ without crippling back pains courtesy of heavy weighting bags.

10. Your conversation skills have suffered 
You’re used to opening every new conversation with the question ‘so where are you from?’ Now, without the comfort of having that backpacker bond, you’ve actually got to think of original conversation starters. And having to re-teach yourself to speak in full sentences not broken down English sentences is incredibly hard.

11. You feel uncomfortable drinking from a glass-like a civilized human being
Sandcastle buckets, plastic cups, plastic bottles. All yes when travelling. You’re not even sure your hands still know how to hold a proper glass these days.

12. Everyone seems to dress very fancily.
Where all of your clothes have been so well worn that they’re filled with holes and you’re still finding sand in the pockets.

13. You struggle to spend time alone
You had firmly subscribed to the herd-mentality you developed while travelling, so you’re not quite sure why everyone back here is so obsessed with alone time. Not being surrounded by people freaks you out.

14. You’ve reached new levels of nostalgia
If people knew how frequently you scrolled through your own Instagram feed they’d diagnose you with a narcissistic personality disorder. But those sunset shots just get you every time.

15. You’re friends have all moved on
It’s not like they’ve forgotten you, but while you’ve been off gallivanting around the globe, they appear to have got themselves jobs, houses, stable relationships and a sense of maturity. It’s frightening.

16. But fundamentally, you realize that nothing much has changed back home
It may have been a new country each month for you, but it’s been business as usual for everyone at home. Being back in your same bedroom almost makes you feel as though you dreamt the whole thing…

17. You find yourself out of the TV-series loop BIG TIME
But luckily you have no job and no life, so plenty of time to catch up.

18. You panic about not knowing where your passport is at all times
Turns out having a flight to catch every five minutes can do wonders for your organizational skills.

19. You have to adjust to living under your parent’s roof again
Not that this is a bad thing – have you SEEN the full fridge? But you were kind of a fan of all your new-found independence.

20. But ultimately, there’s no place like home 
And a sense of knowing. Knowing the culture, the food, the language and the people