I sit in the hostel living room in Zdiar, just listening to all the conversations going on. There was a guy whose family originated from Poland but migrated to the UK before the war started, “we were lucky”, he said. He was talking about the situation in Israel & the Palestinians to another hostel mate. 

This was over a breakfast setting at 9am in the morning – definitely too heavy a topic for me so bright and early on. But that was my first realisation. 

There were also conversations of “The world’s strongest passports”, and obviously I was the lucky one since I was holding onto the Singapore passport. Amongst us, there were people from all over the world, and a fellow Southeast Asian (she was from Vietnam) told me casually “I am so envious of your passport. You can go anywhere so easily”.

And this evening, we talked about the open gun law situation in the States. To so many of us, the thought of having guns lying around would be something that’s pretty much unfathomable and strange. Kids are being given drills in the event of another gunman walks in again – just how heartbreaking is this?

Once again, all of these conversations reminded me of just how lucky I am. To be born in a country that makes things so easy for us, and one that had no natural disasters or any crazy incident that would fall on us any day. 

So many times when I travel, I learn so much from the fellow travellers I meet – they often show me their side of the world that I’d never know (not even in the media). For I am blessed to be able to afford the money to travel, and for learning from other cultures.

Here’s to more stories.

In the meantime, some photos from Krakow, Poland:

Love,

Olivia L.