Today marks nearly three months since I began my travels through Central America. At the ripe age of 32, I said to myself maybe this would be the last time I’ll be in the position to travel; with some pocket money behind me, no monthly rent that breaks my bank, no mortgage – let’s be honest, I’ll be dead before I can afford a house – and no boyfriend. Haha when I write it like that, it sounds miserable, but actually, it’s quite a freeing feeling; to have the ability to do everything before I get locked down and locked in. 

Across the course of this trip, I’ve met a really wild range of personalities and people. In fact, nearly more varied than when I went travelling for a year and a half in 2018. I’ve realised there’s a pattern to people; how you meet them, who they are and where they fit in your life. And hey I’m going to write about it 😏 At risk of sounding like I’m writing the next season of Friends, here are the 8 types of people you meet travelling. I’m sure there are more – but my brain is now mush. Let me know if you can relate in the comments below.

The one who you chat to for days, but never actually learn their name

When you’re sleeping in dorms, you tend to meet people (obviously). But sometimes, you meet SO many people over the amount of time you travel, that niceties go out the window and you forget that you need to actually engage properly to find out who the hell this person is. So you have a giant conversation about their travels, where they’ve been, which countries they’ve liked and disliked, how they ended up with 1000 mosquito bites on their ankles and by the time you’re knee deep in conversation, you forget you’ve not even asked their name. Then you see them every day in your room, or walking throughout the hostel, and you say hi, you bond and by the time you pack up your bags, you still haven’t a clue what they’re called or who they are. But it doesn’t matter because you’ve loved them being your dorm room best friend and seeing them around. It’s a sense of familiarity amidst an ever-changing social environment. Take my stay in Semuc Champey, Guatemala. I met a German girl in my room. I spoke to her for a while. She was covered in tick bites and gave me her lighter to help my mosquito bite itch – don’t ask. I gave her strepsils for her sore throat. We would bump into each other around the hostel and chat. We later moved into another room together. We chatted more. I liked seeing her face around and enjoyed her company. I LIKED having her as a constant dormmate, but do I know her name? Not a clue. Do I know who she is? Nope. Will I ever find out? Probably not.

The one you fall in love with

When you think about it, the concept of travelling and staying in hostels is actually bizarre. You’re staying in a dorm full of people, from a bunch of random countries, and you’re lying there in your pyjamas in quite a vulnerable state. You see the same people consistently for a few days and you have absolutely no idea who they are, other than having to trust that they’re not a serial killer. Sometimes you find people attractive, sometimes you don’t, other times, there’s someone who sets your heart on fire just by looking at you and saying hello. And boom – just like that, without knowing their personality, their likes and dislikes, whether they are in fact a serial killer or if you can even have a conversation with them? You fall like that.

Take Mr Brown Eyes – I refuse to give his name. I’m not usually one for brown eyes. In fact, I’ve never look at a pair of brown eyes and thought wow, my god you’ve got the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen. But on this trip, I’ve met someone with the most BEAUTIFUL BROWN EYES I’VE EVER SEEN. They look like someone has stuffed two Maltesers in his face and I LOVE Maltesers. His face is so cute it actually genuinely pains me and makes me feel slightly ill with nerves when he speaks to me – of which he pretty much doesn’t. I barely know the guy. He couldn’t be less interested in me but I don’t care. I am in love for two days and that’s the end of that. A fleeting romance with nothing to show for it. Such is the travel life. And now I’m fully aware that those of you who have met me with brown eyes, are probably thinking this is all about you – well my friend, stop being so vain. My two-day love affair from afar won’t ever guess hahaha #shame.

The one you bond with instantly who becomes your best friend

Sometimes you meet someone platonically, and you just know you’ve found someone extremely special. I’m lucky that some of my closest friends have been made from backpacking, one of them being Hiske, my Dutch friend who I met in a hostel lobby, who I’m blessed to have been friends with since 2018 and Mollie, who I met in Ghana while volunteering when I was 19 years old! These two people I can’t imagine not being in my life. And travel brought them to me.

The one you don’t know who gets on your nerves

It’s quite normal in a hostel full of random people to also not always get on with everyone – and that’s okay. Sometimes people’s voices are SO LOUD at 11pm that it’s bound to get on your nerves. Other times, there’s a person who thinks the tiny communal dorm bathroom is in fact their own personal en-suite and I have to wade through their dirty clothing, towels and makeup to get to the shower. Sometimes it’s nothing more than a vibe, but if you know yourself well enough, you can figure it out quite quickly. I like to bring people together, and there’s nothing better than bringing a good group of people together for dinner. A table of good vibes from nationalities all around the world – when can you do that in real life when you return? It’s the absolute best.

The one you travel with for days before you do your separate things 

This is the norm when travelling. You’ll meet someone you get on with, they tell you their travel plans, you tell them yours, and one of you is like, come join! Then your entire itinerary gets thrown up into the air, and you spend four days having an amazing time with someone you got to know for the best part of two hours the night before. Then you return to reality and jump back onto your itinerary, four days of intense conversations now becoming a core memory in your travel trip. Sometimes it’s even less than four days; like my hike up a mountain with an American guy I met chatting about the world, or an intense, jerky bus ride with an Israeli girl talking about our personal lives and what’s made us who we are today. Sometimes you meet each other again, sometimes you never do. Sometimes things happen. But these are the moments that count. They make a difference. Fleeting yet incredibly meaningful times. 

The one who ignores you 

Pretty self explanatory. For whatever reason, sometimes you just get incredibly ignored and left out. Maybe they’re having a bad day, they’ve made their own group and they can’t be bothered to introduce themselves to yet another smelly traveller they’re never going to meet again – or maybe they just despise you 😂 Either way, they exist and that’s okay too. Humans will be human.

The one you don’t really get to know in person but you speak to all day everyday on social media so you’re like weird social media best friends

This has happened SO many times to me it’s hard to remember just how many. You’ll meet someone cool very briefly, maybe even just an hour, you connect on Instagram, and before you know it, you’re just chatting to them daily or weekly. You now have a couch to crash on in America or Switzerland with the person you know more from DM than in person. Excellent stuff – as long as it doesn’t go wrong and they turn out to be, you know, a serial killer. Simple friendships, easily made, easily kept.

The ones who change your world whether they stay in your life or not

There was a phrase someone once told me:

People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime.

And it’s really true. There are people I’ve met who have made a profound impact on my life and have really changed the way I look at the world. Two people I met on my very first trip travelling around Bali, when I’d just lost my beloved grandad and had a traumatic breakup had lost their parents; one in a short amount of time, the other to the same illness my Dad has. I was astounded by the sheer strength and resilience of these two people who ended up getting together and marrying – and I was blessed to have been invited to their intimate wedding ceremony. They taught me that grief doesn’t need to destroy you. That it can exist and you can still move on with your life. They are still my friends to this day, although it’s difficult to always be in touch with different time zones, but I love them both deeply.

Then there was Adan, a Mexican guy who Hiske and I spent time with in Colombia, who recently died in a homicide that shocked me to the core, and whose memories I’ll always treasure.

There was a Venezuelan family who lived in Colombia, making money from street food and the father of the family had been shot several times back in his home country. He had to give up his love of skateboarding, but instead was teaching it to his little son and daughter. There was a German girl who taught me that not all people can be swayed by the havoc of bad press and media, and lastly, an Israeli boy who’s been in my life sporadically since 2018, who escaped the Nova massacre and who really made me see for the first time that I’d maybe like to marry a Jewish man and keep my Dad happy 😂

Some of these people are no longer in my life, some are them are. They are just a few stories of people that have made an impact on me that’ll I always remember. And for that I’m grateful. 

That about sums up a few types of people I’ve met on this trip. What about you? Have I missed any out? Let me know in the comments below!