WORDS & PICTURES: Kirstie Will

Connect with Kirstie on Instagram | Twitter | KirstieWillTravel.com

I am a traveller at heart. First sparked when I moved to France during university, my love for travel has only grown. I spent this trip discovering every corner of the town I lived in and the surrounding cities, and soon I was planning elaborate solo trips around Europe during my time off work. Then I found opportunities to move abroad again before I finished my studies, this time discovering Spain. Even in my final year of university, I was jetting off somewhere every few weeks, skipping a few too many Friday classes to take a long weekend in Brussels, visiting friends in Rotterdam, or planning cool layovers in Dublin.

Since 2019, I’ve been documenting all of these adventures as a travel blogger, at Kirstie Will Travel. All I want to do in life is travel the world and write about it. To inspire people with new places to discover, to help them step out of their comfort zone and discover the joys of exploring the world, to help them plan incredible itineraries for their trips.

With that being said, I’m sure I’m not alone in my shock and frustration that over a year since the emergence of the COVID-19, the virus still has the world in its grip. A year ago, blissfully unaware of what was to come, I was finishing my studies at university in Scotland. I had a little over three months left, and then I would be free to go and explore the world as much as I wanted. I had plans to travel through Europe until graduation in June, visiting Croatia, more of the Adriatic Coast, Greece, Malta, Italy… the list grew by the day. I had also applied for a teaching assistant job in Belgium, so I could move to be with my boyfriend in autumn.

All things considered; life was pretty great. The world was mine for the taking – I had my plans set for 2020, and who knew what opportunities would come knocking after that. That all quickly changed with the announcement of an immediate national lockdown in the UK in March 2020. My dad drove through the night to pick me up from Glasgow and drive me home to the north of Scotland. I packed up my entire flat, said goodbye to my flatmates, my university, my friends, and my job, quickly discovering that travelling the world gets a lot harder when you’re indefinitely stuck in a village of just a thousand people.

What we’ve learned during 2020 | The Art of Slowing Down: Lockdown Lessons

Despite the difficult adjustment, I don’t think I could have spent lockdown in a better place. As my sunny European travel plans disappeared, I spent my days hiking, cycling, exploring every last corner of the Highland countryside (within walking distance, of course). Although my enjoyment was forced at first, and I was definitely still frustrated at the situation, I began to find simple joys in everything I was so lucky to have.

The slogan “making everywhere you go an adventure” soon cropped up in several places on my blog, becoming a very important part of my travel ethos. COVID or no COVID, life is an adventure whether you can book a year long trip across Asia, whether you can take a city break in Europe, or whether you can simply step out of your back door and discover something new in your hometown. Travel doesn’t have to be exotic or expensive, it is simply found anywhere you are willing to chase that spark of adventure and discovery. I soon realised that you can be a traveller without leaving your hometown. There are people out there who country-hop around the world, rapidly ticking destinations off the list, but visiting 100 countries doesn’t automatically make you a traveller. It’s something much deeper, much more personal, that comes from within.

This change of attitude towards travel is easily the most important thing that I have taken away from my time in lockdown in Scotland, and it still applies today in Belgium, where I now live. I was fortunate enough that my life plans were not interrupted by the pandemic, and I was able to move to Brussels in autumn as planned. With international travel off the cards, even to Belgium’s many neighbouring countries, I’m satisfying the travel itch by exploring the towns and cities of Belgium. I may have overlooked some of these places had I been able to jet off to other countries, so in a sense I’m glad to be ‘stuck’ here.

“Travel doesn’t have to be exotic or expensive, it is simply found anywhere you are willing to chase that spark of adventure and discovery.”

Even in my new home city, I have dedicated a lot of time to finding hidden gems and different things to do. I’m not unique in this – many people have fallen back in love with the place they call home this year, rediscovering old places, and finding out new things about cities they’ve lived in for years. As an expat, I’m fortunate that my everyday surroundings are somewhat foreign, even now after five months, and so perhaps more exciting. However, when faced with the possibility of no travel for another year from now, I reckon we’re all taking travel wherever and however it comes to us.

Navigating this crisis as an aspiring full-time travel blogger has been the most difficult aspect. I have a lot of time to dedicate to my blog, but I lack the motivation and drive, and it has become a real mental struggle. It’s unsurprising that in a time of such uncertainty and worry, even the things we are most passionate about take too much energy. I’m constantly torn between being lenient with myself, giving myself time to rest and look after my mental health, and feeling like I am wasting such a prime time in my life to work on my goals.

Celebrating the little wins helps, however. Every time I hit ‘publish’ on a blog post it’s another step. Even if I can only write a paragraph, it’s a paragraph more than I had yesterday. I am finding ways to be creative and stretch out content when I have a limited number of destinations to write about, and also turning into somewhat of a Belgium expert as a travel blogger. It has been a journey full of ups and downs, but I’m remembering why I love what I do, and slowly going from there.

Everyone’s experience of the pandemic is unique, and the trials and tribulations of a traveller unable to travel may seem frivolous to many. I recognise that I’m lucky that this is one of only a couple of ways in which I have been affected so far, but regardless, we must allow ourselves to feel. As a young travel blogger, it can be hard not to feel like I’m being robbed of the best, most freeing years of my life and losing the opportunity to build a business, which could be a huge setback in the long run.

However, at some point we must accept that life will throw us these hurdles, and we must simply adapt the path to our goals. I’m sure that even in a world without COVID, problems would crop up that would make me feel like the world was ending, or that I would never achieve my dreams. With determination, adjustment and love for adventure in any form, I’m slowly adapting to my new life as the travel blogger that can’t travel.