"Why I Traveled"

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Someone on here thought I should make this a separate post after she asked why I traveled. I'm a curious person, and a question I'd ask you would be, "Why not?".. So many reasons, but I don't think there's one in particular... I'm a musician, so I want to play with musicians from all over the world, especially different kinds of music. Part of it is to prove myself I can jam with anyone. Mainz, Bocholt, Konstanz - where I visited this girl who was a foreign exchange student, six years after we graduated high school. We went to Basel, Switzerland for a day, too. I have been to Cologne, where I met a friend in Texas during a long 15,000 mile road trip across the US, where I traveled through 28 states in my 20s. A fellow musician with a witty sense of humor, we became fast friends, so when he was living in Amsterdam, we hung out a few times, and then after going to Greece and Hungary for about 2 months altogether, I went to Cologne for two weeks, staying mostly in a hostel near his place, and a few nights at his apartment. I still remember the street -- Venlostrasse (I have actually been to Venlo, NL). Another interesting part of travel is where I usually stay - backpacking hostels. There might be 200-300 people from over a hundred countries, and it's nice to compare what they think about the host country. Couchsurfing was a good community (until the pandemic) to talk with locals, expatriates, backpackers, for advice on how to stay, where to go, finding work, finding people. One thing no one ever admitted was finding love. It wasn't a reason for going, but I thought it could be a by-product, just like making friends. The first question everyone asks each other during introduction is why... Only one Italian woman (very shy, spoke little English) eventually told me, maybe as a result of smoking marijuana, but she said "I want to go to school, become a chef.... <paused> and maybe start a family?" - she said it so shyly, while shrugging her shoulders, as if she wasn't sure, but I think she was, and perhaps didn't want to be too vulnerable. I never heard anyone say this, but I lost the wonder for travel when the phones took over, eliminating conversation and cultural exchange, so I haven't even left my state in the last five years, and spend a lot of time online, where I can communicate to more people without all the money and travel.