Are you a backpacker? Are you not sure if you are? Backpacking is more than slinging a backpack over your shoulder and setting off. It’s a way of traveling. If you’ve ever wondered whether or not you’re a backpacker, now is the time to find out. If you do any of these things, chances are you’re a backpacker!
You don’t know what to write down when asked for your permanent address.
You don’t know what to write down for occupation on the customs forms.
Pasta has been your main meal for months. Sometimes you mix it up by putting chicken in it.
You wear the same shirt for a week.
You wear the same jeans for two weeks.
You do your laundry in sinks.
Everything you own fits into one pack.
You make new friends everywhere — bus stops, ferries, train stations, airports.
You think nothing of sharing a room with the stranger you just met at one of those places.
Hot water is a luxury.
So is air conditioning.
You will sleep anywhere, as long as it is cheap.
You have a warped sense of cost. Three dollars for a room? Great deal! Three dollars for a meal? Outrageous!
When you go back home, you find it weird that you can’t haggle over prices.
You can’t sleep without earplugs anymore, even if no one is snoring.
You haven’t slept in a room by yourself since you left home.
When asked what day it is, you can’t remember.
You ask people where they’re from before you ask them what their name is, and you remember them according to where they came from.
No matter where you go, the beer is never cheap enough.
You can say “cheers” in more languages than you’d like to admit.
You have learned to say beer in 10 languages.
Your budget revolves around how much alcohol you can buy in one night.
You have permanent flip-flop tan lines on your feet.
You find it odd to be surrounded by people who have the same accent as you.
You fill your pockets with as many bread rolls and jam packets from the free breakfast as you can so you can eat lunch today.
You are pleasantly surprised when you find toilet paper in the bathroom.
You believe that a good shower constitutes running water.
You haven’t showered without flip-flops in months.
You plan your travel around getting free accommodation on a train, plane, or bus.
You spend your nights in airports to save money.
You know the nationality of everyone just by looking at their bags.
You see a television as a luxury and a waste of time.
You still think the three shirts you have been wearing for the past 6 months are fashionable.
You have fisherman’s pants.
You know what the words “visa run” entail, and how painful one can be.
You plan all your future trips around free accommodation from all the promises people made to you at hostels.