Airport security.

Paying an escort for a cavity search costs too much.

I know this will be an unpopular opinion, but airports. And their bars. I have had so many interesting conversations with random strangers at airport bars.

And I mean genuine, honest, conversations. I had a layover in Vegas the day after a guy killed like 60 people at that concert. I had been in the Vegas airport many times before and it’s always so loud with the slot machines and people are excited and happy…there’s a lot going on.

That day, it was absolutely silent except for people crying and quietly chatting. It hit like a ton of bricks…the contrast. But everyone wanted to talk about it and tell their story - what they saw, how they escaped, etc. And granted, this isn’t a typical story and it’s tragic as fuck, but everyone has a story and I find that fascinating.

The travelling itself. Destinations are never my main interest. It’s being in a moving vehicle. I enjoy buses and trains. Just sitting in the hum and watching the scenery zip by.
I hope that counts as travelling.
Usually that ends up looking as following: Start -> Train -> Waiting for a train back -> Train -> Back to start destination. If there’s more ways to travel though, I’ll join them. That means going there and back via different routes. So I may go into some city by train, and back by a bus or vice versa. Bonus points if I have to use city transport.

Even then, I still need preparation the 1st time. Looking through street view and learning the streets I’ll have to go through, searching for backup transport options, finding what bus companies I’ll use, reading their ToS (seriously), checking their fees, checking whether they are in TransCard system, checking photos and videos of how people get in and pay (details like “do I have to just tap the card, or press something on the screen?”, which doors are for entry and exit, do the doors use “open” buttons or are they driver-controlled, etc… Sometimes buses show up in backgrounds of local news reports, and that’s what I look for.), what are the buses’ license plates, what bus models the company uses and their colors, what route the bus goes through (on map - the longer the better, more distance between stops preffered), it shouldn’t be on Mondays and Fridays due to increased number of people.
And with my laziness that can take some time. But after the 1st time, I can just more or less spontaneously go there any time. Just need a few minutes to check whether the timetables and fees were updated, or if there’s something else important different (e.g.: closed roads that could result in skipped stops). If it isn’t obvious, I am not necessarily looking for anything new, just longer routes with less stops. The same route is still as enjoyable for me after taking it every work day twice for past 3 years just as it was the 2nd time.

Oh, but I really like temporary railroad blockages. The replacement bus still needs to take me to the same destination at (more or less) the same time, but via a different route.

The thrill of not knowing what comes ahead. How will the hotel be? Will the town be like the photos? I wonder that I’ll get to eat. And other things like that. The expectation is a journey in and of itself.

Exploring different cultures and food is definitely high up on my list.

I don’t really like travel, but my favourite part is probably going through YVR airport, since it’s such an amazing airport. The architecture, interior design, first nations culture, and everything else makes for a really cool environment.

All the time I have spent not doing it. Those are the better days.

The same thing as my least favorite thing weirdly.

I have had some of the greatest meals of my life traveling objects that I didnt get the name of, would be next to impossible to replicate or even describe in some cases and even if I could, I dont know if I would want to.

And I can likely never have it again.

Trying new foods. Seeing new things in person. Feeling like I’m somewhere completely different to home.

Food. I also enjoy flying and weirdly, airplane food. I’m an urban person and most of my travels are to cities, and my favorite part is urban exploration and walking around.

Getting home.

Maybe not number one but I weirdly enjoy airplane food.

Getting to my destination.

Just walking (and mass-transiting where available) the earth and exploring in a new city or region, and figuring things out on the fly. Makes me feel alive.

I’m honestly thinking I won’t travel again really because of COVID. We took a plane trip in December 2022, wore N95s everywhere, are heavily vaccinated, still came back with COVID, and my spouse ended up hospitalized for two weeks shortly after due to other situations. (Ozempic is a bad idea). That leaves me with driving trips, and mostly that would be the US, and in the current political climate down there I utterly refuse to travel to conservative states and give them my money. We used to go to Charleston SC a lot, but not with mask bans and drag bans and abortion bans now. I do love Buffalo NY (seriously it is a great city with lots to do) so I think I’ll mostly stick to road trips there. I’m a little traumatized on travel right now.