Vagabond at home

Can you be a vagabonder and stay in your own home country?  Some people might argue that this defeats the purpose of vagabonding — seeing unusual sights and hearing strange sounds, experiencing bizarre forms of transportation and even more bizarre gastronomical trials — but there is a lot to be said for picking up and traveling around the place you already hold a passport to.

For one thing, you already know the language, what the currency looks like, and how to navigate the public transportation system.  But even your own home country is full of neverending surprises.

You could vagabond across your whole country, stopping in many towns to spend time with people you’ve never seen before.  Have you ever taken a streetcar in San Francisco, hiked a mountain in Banff, or ridden a bus into the desert in Morocco?  Have you been to all the states/counties/regions your country has to offer?  Try to time your trip according to your favorite weather (always like it warm?) or according to the festivals that spring up everywhere around the year (Beerfest!  Autumn Fest!  Flower Fest!).  Explore the entire country by bus or by train.  Get on public transportation and get off when you feel like it, then muddle your way back to wherever you’re staying.

You might not think of traveling in your home country as “traveling”; where are the unique and colorful native residents?  Still there.  Try to talk to people you’d never have a chance to meet in your day-to-day “settled down” life.  Find a shoemaker, a luthier, a basketball coach, and sit down to ask them questions.  Look in your local free arts newspapers for poetry readings, or art events; go meet crowds of new people and eat some delicious snacks as well.  Seek out volunteer opportunities or gallery openings, check university and college listings for events and meet-and-greets, generally make every event you go to an oppotunity to meet new people and find out about them.  That’s the fun of traveling, right?