How travelling made us want to get married

“Travelling can either make or break the relationship”, my mother once said, as we were both travelling on a train to nowhere. It was a rainy afternoon of November when I just told her about my plans of travelling with G, my boyfriend of not even 3 months. She slowly tucked her hair behind her ears, looked at me, then looked through the window, admiring the rain droplets and smiled. “That’s how my story started”, she said, “I was on my way to a different city, when, on that train platform, I met your father”.

Cory and G Travelling made us want to get married

She didn’t continue, she took a deep breath and asked me to send her a postcard from each location me and G were about to visit.

Our travelling story started in December 2013, when we both took a plane to Hungary. Trembling with emotions, we showed our passports at the border control and smiled at each other in expectation. We had no idea what we wanted, what the future held, or how our relationship will evolve. But we do know now, that it all started with one plane ticket, and it continued with few dozen more. Our first trip abroad proved challenging. We could barely explore the city, as the Eastern European cold took a toll on us. We argued about how to spend our time in Debrecen, laughed at the weird food we tried at the Christmas markets and got frustrated with the level of service we received in restaurants. It all happened within a space of 4 days. The shortest and longest days of travel I’ve ever experienced.

Upon return, we wanted to push our travelling boundaries and booked one week to Rome, a romantic city which was meant to involve Italian food, walks hand in hand along narrow streets, photos upon photos of us exploring Italy’s cultural soul. Our experience was completely different from the expectation. I fell ill in the first two days, hence G had to look after me in a far from a 5-star hotel at the edge of the city. We were both relatively new to travelling still, thus we barely knew how to find the right restaurants, avoid tourist traps and seek a destination true gems. In the end, we came home with a couple of overly expensive souvenirs, few hundred pictures of pasta and new memories to laugh about. It took us another 5 trips around Europe and 2 long hauls to the other side of the world, before we became the well versed, witty travellers we are today.

Roof Top View Rome

We had ups and downs with moody Sundays and happy brunches, moments when we argued about ridiculous things such as the long queue at the Beijing airport, occasions when we were too grumpy and tired to pose for a happy photograph. Spending 24/7 with your loved one can be challenging, but also wonderful. We realised during our trip to Tenerife, in May 2014, that travelling together meant being able to mould into each other, understand the other person and learn everything there is to learn about them. Beyond silly compromises such as the number of toppings our pizza should have, or how many suitcases we should carry us, we realised that we had a once in a lifetime opportunity to completely open up to another person, cross all boundaries, have no secrets and bear no lies. And such, we became not just travelling partners, but best friends. In time, we learned how we both love the outdoors, soft adventure travel, road trips and amazing food. We became these foodie travellers in search of the next best destination. We understood that we both needed to feel cherished, respected and loved, hence we took our communication and friendship to a whole new level. The more adventures we shared, the more addicted we became to each other.

Cory and G you could travel honeymoon

It wasn’t until December 2015 that we finally crossed our biggest destination off our bucket list: Japan. After three weeks spent exploring Honshu, we decided to take a trip from Kyoto to the top of Mount Hiei. This romantic, overwhelmingly beautiful place, made me smile whilst admiring a beautiful landscape of thick pines and hilly tops. It was then that G took my hand, looked me in the eye, and asked me to marry him. He told me that it was because of our travels together, that he realised, he wouldn’t want us to ever spend 1 minute apart.

Paulo Coelho once said: “Sometimes you have to travel a long way to find what is near”. It was travelling that opened our minds and hearts, allowed us to spread our wings, enabled us to really know one another. It was after miles upon miles of travelling that we realised we’re better together, we’re soul mates.

Months passed and we continued travelling before we got married in September 2016, when during her toast, my mother said: “Wherever you go, go with all your heart, as Confucius wrote”. And so, we started a new chapter, beginning with our honeymoon in the Seychelles. We have been travelling ever since, 24/7 together, with our minds open and our hearts full.

Romantic honeymoon Mahe Seychelles
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Cory from You Could Travel entering Senso-ji in Tokyo, Japan

Cory Varga – Cory Varga is a Tokyo-based licensed travel agent and published travel writer. Her main expertise is writing about Japan, where she happily lives with her husband.
Cory published her first book on Japanese customs and manners because she’s obsessed with everything Japan and wants to share more about the local customs with the rest of the world.
While Cory has visited hundreds of destinations and has lived in 7 different countries, Japan remains her favorite place to live and write about. Cory is multilingual, and she lives in Tokyo, Japan with her husband.

Comments

23 responses to “How travelling made us want to get married”

  1. Cris Avatar
    Cris

    Two months info my relationship with my now husband, we went to London. The longest 5 days in my life. We argued – why did I think to ask for wi-fi at the hotel?! -, we laughed, we had a blast. We came back home and that same year when to Budapest for a week. We didn’t have enough money but made it..i would never change how things worked out between us though!

    1. Cory Avatar
      Cory

      Oh, I can imagine how London can be a bit challenging. Yes, wifi….prices as well, even the weather can be daunting. I’m glad you did it though, because travelling can truly make or break a relationship.

      1. Cris Avatar
        Cris

        A beautiful challenge, though. And so was Athens a year later. At least we do speak English but not so much Greek :)))

  2. Magda Avatar
    Magda

    If you face together many difficult situations together while travelling, then you feel like you can fight together any obstacle in your life… Great post!

    1. Cory Avatar
      Cory

      Glad you enjoyed the article, thank you. Travelling as a couple can be difficult, but also absolutely amazing. You just need a bit of time to get “there”.

  3. Jess Avatar
    Jess

    What a lovely story! Travelling has definitely brought my husband and I closer together.

    1. Cory Avatar
      Cory

      So wonderful to hear. I enjoy knowing a good love story!

  4. Nana Avatar
    Nana

    Cute story! And congrats with the marriage! I got married after 7 months with my husband that I met during vacation in the amazon jungle. Even though we are very different our desire to explore the world is something that keeps us very much connected like a common purpose you can say. Its probably the same desire you two have 🙂 Good luck in the future! Lots of love,
    Nana

    1. Cory Avatar
      Cory

      Really? No way! It’s soooo awesome, to meet your husband in the Amazon. That sounds like one of those amazing adventures. It’s sometimes nice to meet someone different than you, as it can balance you out a little.
      Lots of love back, Nana!

  5. Sophie Nadeau Avatar
    Sophie Nadeau

    What a lovely read! I think it’s really important to highlight that travel (even with your best friend) is never going to be perfect. We always end up arguing about the stupidest things haha. PS mothers always have the best advice (:

    1. Cory Avatar
      Cory

      Mothers just know it all…I hope I’m going to be half the parent my mum is to me. And travelling can be so difficult sometimes. Especially when you want coffee, they want ice cream in the other side of the city. Silly example, but all so real!

  6. Hannah Avatar
    Hannah

    This is so sweet and amazing!! These are all so true and I totally understand that. I met my husband traveling and we dated for two years living on different continents. Travel does take a relationship to a totally new level and you learn things about each other I don’t think you otherwise would. Lovely story!

    1. Cory Avatar
      Cory

      Thank you, Hannah! I love a good travelling romantic story. I can imagine how difficult but fun it must have been to arrange for dates in other countries. In the end, it shows that when you meet the real person, distance is nothing but a mere inconvenience.

  7. Anisa Avatar
    Anisa

    You really learn so much about a person when you travel with them. It is nice to hear how big a part traveling played in your relationship. And it is refreshing to hear it hasn’t always been perfect!

  8. Penny Avatar
    Penny

    There are always those situations when traveling as a couple can get difficult. Once you learn to meander round those rough edges things turn out to be really beautiful.

  9. Ashlyn | From Heart And Seoul Avatar
    Ashlyn | From Heart And Seoul

    Travel TOTALLY is great for marriage. It will show you your own flaws really quickly when you get a little too stressed & frustrated! Haha

    We spent our first year of marriage traveling all over Asia, and yes it does bring about dumb fights sometimes – but at the end of the day I feel like my husband and I have been through (and conquered) so much together!

  10. Stacey Avatar
    Stacey

    Wow this is beautiful! I love your story! I travelled with my boyfriend in October, been together about 10months at that point. After that trip I knew I’d have a travel buddy for life. Travel does bring you closer and you learn so much about each other.

  11. Kyntra Strickland Avatar
    Kyntra Strickland

    My husband and I got married 6 months ago and are finally traveling internationally this summer. So excited! What a beautiful story, thanks for sharing.

  12. Karin Avatar
    Karin

    I love to travel with my husband 🙂 We met in a Bangkok hostel and started hitchhiking together – three and a half years later, that´s what we still do…
    In our case, I convinced him to marry me to make the visa and residence permits and all that stuff easier. He wasn´t so keen (all his family is divorced) but he is happy because his family got a lot bigger when he joined mine 😉
    We are the best travel partners for each other – I am good with picking up languages and getting a ride while he has a good sense of orientation and is very likeable and easy to talk with people. I didn´t think I´d be able to travel with someone for so long!

  13. BonBon Avatar
    BonBon

    You guys are so cute. All the best on your marriage life and the journey to the unknown:) My husband and I started to bond deeper when we started traveling and now… we got 2 little travelers with us:) Happy travels and hope our path cross one of these days… xoxo

  14. Eulanda Avatar
    Eulanda

    “Travelling together meant being able to mould into each other, understand the other person and learn everything there is to learn about them.” I can definitely relate to this. I was a notorious solo travel before meeting my husband. When we started travelling together everything just clicked. We’ve learned so much about each other on our travels. It’s truly a gift to be able to share the journey of discovery with your partner! Beautiful post!

  15. Kelly | A Pair of Passports Avatar
    Kelly | A Pair of Passports

    Such a lovely story! This is one of the reasons we think it is so important for every couple to travel together. It CAN make or break your relationship because you get to know each other out of your comfort zone. If it makes it, your relationship will be better for it. If it breaks it, you probably wouldn’t have lasted anyway. Happy it went well for you two 🙂

  16. Sandy Avatar
    Sandy

    Aww this is so cute <3

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