I often say that I couldn’t have made it to Europe without my boyfriend.
Moving there had been such a hassle that many times, I wanted to simply drop the project and curl up under my covers. But we were a team. My defeat implied his defeat. Although many things have not gone the way we hoped they would, we still managed to get on the plane to London and build a life there for a year. Many people told us this adventure was either going to break us, or make us stronger - I’m happy to report that it definitely made us a stronger item, but it wasn’t all that easy. Here’s a few chapters of our story as a couple abroad.
Photo by Lost.In.Time
Chapter 1 : The Bathroom Incident
Having lived together before moving to London, we had already sorted the bathroom situations and had created many means to maintain our private individual moments, hum, private, so this chapter does not have anything to do with bodily functions (although me yelling at him to not look at me when I was being sick on the plane is quite funny). It is instead about the lack of space in a studio flat. Let me explain.
When a couple lives in a 10 m² flat 24/7, occasional quibbles are only natural. But some days were worse than others and on quite a few occasions, doors needed to be slammed and sulking had to be done (he told me I talked like my mother, what else was I supposed to do?). The question is: how exactly do you sulk in a studio flat? How powerless are you when the only door you can slam is the bathroom door? I had no other choice but to stay in there for as long as it would take to make him feel bad. But trust me, once you’ve done your nails and showered, there isn’t much to do. Luckily, our shower curtain is a huge world map, so now I can tell you the exact location of Djibouti. What a girl’s gotta do to keep her pride.
Chapter 2: The Unit
Travel is all about meeting new people. While being a couple abroad certainly has some advantages, it’s quite a bummer in this topic. That creates two problem: difficulty to socialize and lack of individuality.
It’s not easy for couples to meet new people. Being a team of two people often creates the illusion that you do not need or want to socialize with the people around you. Couples really have to make an extra effort to mingle because people will not go to them naturally like they would with individuals. And if they do get to talk with someone, that someone’s probably in a relationship as well.
That’s exactly what happened to us. The people we really got along with are couples, and more often than not, Canadian couples. Hello, travel experience.
Couples tend to befriend other couples for obvious reasons. If however, you happen to overhear one of their conversations, all you will hear is ‘we’. We are from there, we just visited this museum, we sleep at that hotel. Everyone gets referred to as a we rather than as separate I’s. And sometimes it can get blur the limits of individuality of each person. Most travelling couples create a merging bond that keeps them stronger as an item on given situations, but that bond needs to be loosened up on social gatherings.
Let yourself be for one minute!
Chapter 3: Sacrifices
That problem is not avoidable whether you travel with your partner, your friend or your parents. At one point, someone is not going to agree with your itinerary.
Of course, travelling with your significant other probably means that you have the same, or at least similar interests. But when the day comes that you won’t agree on something, and trust me, it will, it’s crucial that you seize up just how much you are sacrificing. Because as opposed to a friend or a parent, you will be with that person 24/7 during the trip and, most importantly, after.
My tip is to always have a first look at your itinerary beforehand. It’s what we (see, I don’t even follow my own rules) did when we planned our trip to Dublin. I don’t like beer and needless to say, I wasn’t to keen on spending a whole afternoon at the Guinness Factory. I went anyway to please my beer-obsessed-but-not-alcoholic boyfriend. But guess what? It ended up being one of the best activity of my whole year abroad.
Planning is the key. No need to have a tight schedule, but at least have a rough idea of what you will be doing. That way, shall there be an argument, it will happen before the actual trip and save you lots of time and energy on location. Spontaneity is overrated anyway.
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Have you travelled with your other half? Have you experienced difficulties or challenges? Do you have tips or anecdotes? Speak up!
