WHere?! Nomad Local Blog

After living in London for one month, I understood that living there is a challenge: people can’t save money nor buy a house, they work a lot to live day by day, and building bounds with friends is harder. And for Cultural Travelers can be difficult as well.

When you make a Cultural Travel, you live the great things about people’s lives but also the hard ones. In cities like London, one of the most expensive in the world, you may feel the struggle of living through the local experience.

So the question is how to make a life-changing Cultural Travel in hard cities like London, where the lack of money, friends, and time can be a real problem? The answer could be in their own people.

A first encounter with a Nomadic Life in London

As I wrote on previous articles, when I decided to go to London everything was against me: I couldn’t find a host and paying a hostal was not an option for the high costs, so I spent the first night homeless.

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Then, I found friends from other countries living in London, and locals who helped me to discover opportunities, so I could survive yhe first week and found a charity hostal to volunteer, where I stayed for three weeks.

Also in WHere?!: Traveling Change You Even If You Don’t Notice It

The New Mansion House is a hostal of the franchise LHA that helps people to find cheaper accommodation, to support the community with lower resources in London, like students or foreign workers. Besides, they also allow volunteer people in need, which create a family environment based in cooperation. I suggest you to apply for these jobs months in advance because there’s a waiting list.

Volunteering in there was supportive; they gave me free accommodation and three meals for 20 hours of work a week. So I had a lot of time to invest in other things.

Food and Accomodation, a Silence Danger for Growth Travel

Nevertheless, comfort is dangerous as well, as it’s very easy to get focused only in volunteering for months, as you are provided of all your needs, and you may lose other important things like the opportunity to get immersed into the culture and creating other ways of income.

So something crucial to do during a Cultural Travel is to get busy, because, as I’ll tell you in other articles, you’ve got the chance to meet a lot of people, create strong friendships and at the same time you can build a network while traveling.

“it’s dangerous… so it’s very easy to get focused in the volunteer work and forgetting other important things”

But at the same time, everyday is a new opportunity to prolongue the journey by launching big projects, finding the way to get employed or crating your own job, and being in cities like London, for example, can help you to learn from many people around the world to do so.

For instance, I met a Community Manager, a Music editor and photographers in the hostal I volunteered, who gave me great pieces of advice to improve my skills and to keep building up this project. It was something that I needed!

Serving people to become a Better Cultural Traveler

The aim is to get immersed into the culture as long as possible, to learn from people, because everyone has something valuable to teach. But most of people are busy in London, and it can be difficult to do it.

Therefore, I discovered that the value of service can give you the patience to withstand social pressure and the energy to take advantage of every small moment to create boundaries with people. I was happy cleaning rooms in the hostal and this gave me the motivation to talk, hang out, and share meals with others. I shared my happiness with others.

I have to acknowledge that the work started to become harder when I got tired. Volunteering six days a week, and everyday in personal projects became havier than expected; nevertheless, I felt I was doing something meaningful and I’d had a straightening from my last volunteering job in Macedonia, so I felt physical and psychological stronger.

The motivation helped me to support friends in their tasks sometimes and they helped me when I needed it as well. For example, when I did a last minute travel to visit a friend, and had to change shifts with my British friend Reece, who I worked alongside many days with. We had an amazing time together and he helped me without doubt.

“When I got busy, I felt better; in other words, I helped myself.”

Then I discovered something amazing: it wasn’t about working, but the motivation and the passion you get by being helped and supporting others is what makes you to become a better cultural traveler in this kind of experiences, even in difficult cities like London.

From giving support to friends in need, listening and encouraging others with love and smiles, and cleaning the rooms of people, as a result, I made amazing friends quickly, felt happier even in the middle of the everyday problems, and got the motivation to work harder than ever. When I got busy, I felt better; in other words, I helped myself.

When you help and give love without expecting anything back, every place where you travel can have a positive impact in your life, even in complex cities like London. When I told my colleagues about this Cultural Travel project, some helped me to record videos too, gave me feedbacks and encouraged me to keep traveling.

So one of the lessons I got by volunteering in London is: the attitude of service can help you to grow, by finding people in gratitude for the support, you will make friends, and will get you busy and happy changing your life and others at the same time.