在路上：出去旅行的十大理由

1. If you don’t take the first step, you’ll never do it.

　　1. 如果现在不踏出第一步，以后更没可能

　　It’s so easy to get stuck in this cycle of “I’m going to go — I can’t go right now — I’ll go next year — I’m going to go,” and never get out of it. There is, after all, a lot of logistics that go into getting out there and seeing the places you’ve always wanted to see.

　　人们很容易陷入这种怪圈：“我要去旅游，但现在不行，明年吧，明年我就去。” 可到最后也没成行。反正出门旅游的途径很多，总有办法去那些一直想看的地方。

　　If you’re looking for one, there is always an excuse not to get those tickets. But the second you take the plunge and decide that you’re actually going (and making the painful-but-necessary financial investments to do so), everything else has a tendency to fall into place.

　　只要你不想去，总有理由不去动身。可一旦你鼓起勇气真的决定出发时(可能要为此花掉一点必要的积蓄)，所有的一切都会清晰明朗啦。

　　2. It’s less expensive than you think.

　　2. 旅游没你想得昂贵

　　While the purchases of things like tickets are always going to sting a bit, there are so many ways to make your travels feasible to do on the cheap.

　　除了票价等有点贵以外，穷游的途径还是很多的。

　　If a hostel is too pricey for you (though there are many which offer beds at 15 bucks a night or even less in major cities), couch surfing is a wonderful option. If you don’t know anyone, check any of the many websites which organize couch surfers. Speaking personally, I and almost all of my friends in Paris have hosted couch surfers at one time or another, because we understand that it’s a city so many people want to see at some point, and we don’t always have a ton of disposable income to do so.)

　　如果你住不起旅馆(虽然有些旅馆15块钱就能住一晚，有些大城市的旅馆甚至还能再便宜些)，可以考虑做沙发客。要是你没什么认识的人，可以在组织沙发客的网站上查查。悄悄说，我和我在巴黎的朋友都时不时地招待过沙发客，因为我们知道很多人都想来看看巴黎，但手上的积蓄又很有限。

　　It’s actually incredibly fun for hosts to meet new people and be able to see their city through new eyes. They can also help you eat cheap, local food and shop places where you won’t be another ripped-off tourist. It’s win-win, and practically free. Of course, it’s always encouraged that you buy a meal or bottle of wine for your host, and help with chores when possible — but still, that’s nothing compared to a hotel.

　　其实，能结识新朋友并用全新的目光参观他们的城市是件非常有趣的事情。他们还能帮你吃到便宜的地方菜、买到便宜的东西，让你避免被宰。“沙发客” 旅游非常廉价，是双赢的旅游攻略。当然，建议你送主人一瓶酒或请主人吃顿饭，可以的话帮忙做做家务。不管怎样，这要比住旅馆省钱有趣多了。

　　3. You don’t ever have to be alone.

　　3. 旅游无需落单

　　Whether you meet people in your hostel, stay on someone’s couch, or join an online travel group before you go which organizes meetups for people passing through the city, there is never a reason to be alone while traveling if you don’t want to.

　　如果你不想一个人旅游，那肯定能找到伴儿。你可以在旅馆结识旅伴，可以做沙发客，或在出发前网上报名那种招人一起游览的组团。

　　Being young and in a new city is one of the easiest ways to meet tons of people, and gives you a million things to talk about in every conversation with a stranger. It’s a time you don’t have to be afraid of first impressions, or the baggage of your life back home. Everything and everyone is a clean slate, and you can meet as many people as you want on your journey.

　　年轻人在陌生城市很容易认识各种各样的人，随便跟谁都能有聊不尽的话题。而且这种情况下你还不必介意什么第一印象或回家后的生活烦恼。一切人与事都是新奇的，旅途中你爱结识多少人就能结识多少人。

　　4. But you can be alone if you want.

　　4. 如果你想，一个人的旅程也不错

　　If you are more interested in spending some alone time, however, there are a million ways to go about that. You can just leave for a day and go wander around a new city, taking everything in and being at peace with your own thoughts. You can take pictures or sit down in cafes and write about everything you see, and don’t have to be on anyone’s schedule. It’s rare that we get these kind of moments back home, and we owe it to ourselves to have them once in a while, if it’s what we want.

　　如果你宁愿一个人静静，办法也有的是。你可以抽一天时间去一座陌生城市逛逛，随遇而安、任思绪平和无扰;也可以拍拍照片，在咖啡馆坐下写点所见所想，不受任何人搅扰。回家后我们就难得享受这样的时光了，所以偶尔想要一个人静一静的话，就对自己好点吧。

　　5. Plane travel is an adventure in itself.

　　5. 飞机旅行本身就是一种冒险

　　Just the act of getting in a plane and feeling it take off, or navigating the byzantine chaos of an airport in early morning, can be a thrilling experience that we easily forget we can have. There is something terribly frightening but also wonderfully life-affirming about the moments before takeoff, or the glimpses of patchwork fields you can get from over the wing.

　　仅仅是感受飞机的起飞，或清早挤过飞机场罗马式的喧嚣，就足以在不知不觉间带给我们一段激动人心的经历。起飞之前或瞥见机翼下方斑斓田野之际，总是又惊惧又笃定。

　　Even the often-disappointing selection of airplane food becomes something wonderful and exotic when you’re going somewhere you’ve been dreaming about for years. It’s a moment that means you got out, that you overcame the false starts, and that something new is waiting for you.

　　当你前往梦寐以求的目的地时，就连不甚如意的飞机餐都变得既可口又充满异国情调了。这是你克服障碍动身出发的时，前方是未知的一切在等待着你。

　　6. Once you get there, moving around is easier.

　　6. 既已抵达，游览便容易多了

　　Take, for example, Europe. You come primarily to see Rome, but you want to get around and see other things. Between cheap train tickets with the 12-30 discount cards, incredibly cheap airlines that hop between European cities, and car shares that are easily accessible online and can cross entire countries in a few hours, there are limitless ways to get from one place to another once you’ve already taken the leap across the ocean.

　　就拿欧洲来说，刚开始你主要是想参观罗马，但很快你就想到周边看看别的了。既然有优惠12-30%的火车票卡、欧洲城际廉价班机、网上拼车花数小时纵览各国，只要你已经迈开第一步，就有数不尽的方法从一个地方玩到另一个地方。

　　Whichever continent you’re headed to, though, you’ll find that (in many ways thanks to the internet) the means of shorter travel to make the most out of a single trip are growing exponentially every day.

　　不管你去哪个洲，你会发现，因为互联网的普及，一次旅游中的短途游玩方式已经日见增多了。

　　7. You never know what will happen when you get there.

　　7. 旅途总是充满新奇

　　It’s so cliché, but it’s said often for a reason. You can spend years rationalizing how you aren’t missing that much by not going, or how you don’t want to risk not having a good time, or that you won’t know what to do when you get there, but the truth is you have no point of reference.

　　虽然有点老生常谈，却也不乏道理。你可以年复一年地说服自己“不去旅行没啥大不了”、“去了不好玩才没劲呢”，或者“你去了也不知道干嘛”，但事实却是你这样说毫无根据。

　　The amount of incredible things that you could happen on your trip is literally unimaginable. You can say that you don’t need to see it, but you really have no way of knowing exactly what you’re missing out on.

　　旅途中可能发生的奇妙事情绝对不是你能想象得到的。或许你会说你根本就不想要什么奇妙经历，但这样你真的会错过很多很多。

　　8. You will invariably learn something about yourself.

　　8. 你总能更加了解自己

　　It can be as simple as, “I can navigate a foreign city by myself and get around with a language book full of only useful phrases. I can use my limited skills to get good food, accommodations, and meet new friends.” Even this is an incredibly important and affirming thing to know about oneself, and the only way to learn it is to get out and see what happens when you try.

　　简单一点就是：“我可以自己游玩陌生城市，能用一本实用外语手册走遍南北，还能用有限的能力解决吃饭住宿问题并结识新的朋友。”哪怕就是这些也非常了不起，足以让你了解自己，而了解自己的唯一办法就是走出去不断尝试。

　　9. It’s good to get out.

　　9. 出去走走益处多

　　No matter how much you love your current place of residence, it’s just all-around a good thing to get out every now and again and see some new surroundings. You are able to put some comparison up against the corner bars you are used to, the restaurants you frequent, the architecture you’re surrounded by, and the public transportation you use every day.

　　不管你多么喜欢现在居住的城市，时不时地出去接触新环境也很有好处。走出去你才能拿新的地方和你常去的街角酒吧、常光顾的餐馆、总是经过的建筑风景或每天乘坐的公共交通进行比较。

　　While you may end up finding that you prefer where you came from, it’s nice to see just how much of our own cities we take for granted as being universal, and even how the buzz of a city around dusk can feel completely different in a climate which is almost identical. Cities have their own lives and personalities, and we sometimes forget that ours is far from being the only kind out there.

　　或许最后你发现自己更喜欢原来的地方——这样也好，原来一直这么理所当然地住在自己的城市，而黄昏时分城市的喧嚣就算是在相同的气候下竟也有迥然不同的韵味。城市各有各的生活与特征，只是我们常常忘了外面的世界很大很精彩。

　　10. There are so many people you haven’t met yet.

　　10. 还有很多人等你去认识

　　Maybe you won’t meet the love of your life waiting to cross a street in a foreign city. Maybe you won’t have a whirlwind two weeks with them where you explore your new environment and learn the first fumbling steps of a new language. Maybe you won’t end up remembering this city for the rest of your life as the place where everything wonderful first began. But maybe you will, and that’s reason enough to go.

　　或许你不可能在异国街头邂逅你的至爱伴侣;或许你不会来一场闪电恋爱跟他们交往两周，但旅行的乐趣在于一边探索新环境，一边结结巴巴学习新的语言;又或许以后你再也不会记得这座曼妙旅程拉开序幕的城市，但是或许你又会，所以你一定要去旅行。