Learning to Live Anywhere (Part 5)

Learning to Live Anywhere

This is the point where slow travel became more than just staying somewhere longer.

It became a way of living.

Over the years, we slowly figured out who we are, what kind of places make us happy, and how to feel at home almost anywhere in the world.

One thing we discovered is that there isn’t a right or wrong way to travel.

Some people feel most alive sleeping in a tent, hiking through the mountains, and spending weeks surrounded by nature.

We don’t.

For us, it’s cities.

We love the energy, the cafés, the parks, the public transport, the food, and simply watching everyday life unfold around us. It took us years to admit that because we thought “real travelers” were supposed to be somewhere remote.

Eventually, we stopped traveling the way we thought we should and started traveling the way that genuinely made us happy.

That changed everything.

After living in cities across Asia, Europe, Australia, and the United States, we also realized something surprising.

People and cultures are wonderfully different.

Daily life isn’t.

Almost everywhere we go, we end up creating the same routine.

We find a place to live.

We discover a good supermarket.

We find our favourite café.

We learn where to exercise.

We find a few restaurants we enjoy.

We slowly stop needing Google Maps because the streets begin to feel familiar.

Before long, we’re no longer trying to figure out the city.

We’re simply living in it.

One thing we’ve never forgotten, though, is that no matter how comfortable we become, we’re still guests.

That’s an important distinction.

It’s easy to forget that when you’ve been somewhere for weeks or even months, but the reality is we’re visitors in somebody else’s home.

Respecting local customs, adapting instead of complaining, keeping a low profile, and remembering that we can leave whenever we want has served us incredibly well over the years.

Perhaps that’s one of the reasons we’ve never experienced the hostility towards tourists that you sometimes read about or see online.

We don’t arrive expecting people to speak our language, share our customs, or live the way we do. Part of the joy of traveling is experiencing a different way of life, not trying to recreate your own.

The same applies when things don’t go according to plan.

In more than eleven years of traveling, we’ve never had a serious encounter with the police, never found ourselves in a situation where we genuinely feared for our safety, and very rarely had conflict with anyone.

Maybe that’s luck.

Or maybe it’s because I’ve never felt the need to win an argument with someone I’ll probably never see again.

Sometimes the smartest thing you can do is smile, wish someone a good day, and walk away.

Especially when you’re carrying around thirty thousand dollars’ worth of recording equipment.

Another habit we’ve developed is becoming part of the community, even if only for a little while.

We join local gyms.

These days that often means HYROX classes, running clubs, yoga or simply finding a fitness studio where I can train several times a week.

We return to the same cafés.

We eat at the same restaurants.

We support local businesses whenever we can because they’re part of the community we’re temporarily calling home.

After a while, people begin to recognise you.

The staff at the café already know whether I’ll order tea or matcha.

The restaurant owner smiles when we walk through the door.

The people at the gym ask where we’ve been if we miss a few days.

I know this might sound like a strange thing to say, but I also believe there’s another benefit.

It helps you feel safer.

Not because people are watching over you every second, but because you’re no longer just another anonymous tourist passing through.

If something ever happened, the restaurant owner has seen you every week.

The people at the gym know your routine.

The staff at your favourite café notice if you haven’t been around for a while.

Those relationships might seem small, but I genuinely believe they matter.

More importantly, they transform an unfamiliar city into something that feels surprisingly familiar.

Travel, at least for us, stopped being about collecting places.

It became about building a temporary life wherever we happened to be.

For us, that’s what learning to live anywhere really means.

Not pretending we’re locals.

Not trying to change the places we visit.

Simply building a life there, with respect, curiosity, and gratitude until it’s time to build another one somewhere else.