Back on the Road with Torsten
The life of a travelling salesman is not one that should be taken on lightly.
You sacrifice a lot for the job. Due to your constantly changing surroundings, it can be incredibly difficult to keep close friends, let alone develop any kind of romantic relationship.
With a life spent on the road, you also lose the advantages of having a home. Sleeping in the same bed every night, caring for your home and feeling comfortable.
You trade these standards for the imitations of comfort that various Budget Hotel companies offer around the world.
Instead of a welcoming family waiting on your return, you are received by a practiced smile that exists out of necessity. Rather than your own bed, enriched with your own scent, you have a sterilised and starched linen cot – clean but not comforting.
What do you get in return for these sacrifices? You get the opportunity to travel the world, like the nomads of old. Sampling the local traditions, customs, delicacies and quirks of every small town and village that you visit.
My recent trip to Wales, for pleasure now rather than work, reminded me of the joys of travelling – and had me almost yearning to call up my old company and get back on the road again.
In the old days, we didn’t have GPS systems or mobile telephones to aid us in our travels. As a result, our jobs were made easier and harder in turns.
Driving through the winding roads of mainland Europe, it could be incredibly difficult to simply travel from one town to another.
However, once you arrived, some places were so remote that not only would the entire community buy from you, but you’d also be put up for the night there.
Now, of course, there are a myriad of tools to aid you in planning and executing a road trip. Thanks to my laptop and mobile phone, I could easily book the accommodation I wanted to stay in (using http://www.visitnorthwales.co.uk/), find a few restaurants that were worth eating at (if you eat anywhere in Wales go to Sosban & The Old Butchers and indulge in some outdoor activities that might have been a little too extreme for this 57 year old.
Wales is a worthy place to visit for anyone living in the UK.
For a seasoned traveller like myself, the 7 hour drive from Weardale was a more of a joy than a chore – I’d recommend leaving yourself plenty of time for stops – you never know when you might pass a place of interest on the way down.
