18 things that will happen if you take a gap year to travel
You'll make 'friends for life' that you'll probably never see again (Picture: Getty)

Some side-affects of taking a gap year to travel are easy to predict – you're definitely going to eat something weird at some point (crocodile, anyone?) and travel adapters will be both your saviour and the bane of your existence.

But some things will happen that you weren't expecting – and they're some of the best parts of travelling.

Here are 18 things (some good, some bad and some that are just hilarious) that will happen if you take a gap year to travel, wherever that place may be.

1. You'll realise what (and who) you really, truly love – and it might not be what you think.

2. When you return home and start job hunting, most interviewers just want to know all about your gap year spent travelling.

3. Your Facebook friends are likely to double overnight with all the new people you meet once, get drunk with and vow to be "friends forever".

4. You'll also be told you've "got a bed whenever you come and visit" by everyone you meet but everyone knows that's just something you say when travelling.

I mean, if they actually turned up at your mum's three-bed semi it'd actually be all kinds of awkward.

5. The amount of stories you'll have to tell when you return home will be unreal, but you'll soon realise people at home aren't that interested in hearing about the time you got hammered on a beach in Thailand.

Anecdotes about Full Moon parties aren't as good as attending a Fill Moon party (Picture: Getty)
Anecdotes about Full Moon parties aren't as good as attending a Fill Moon party (Picture: Getty)

6. You'll can't believe you used to work/study 9-5 and had to take a coat out with you in summertime.

7. You'll never have enough travel adapters. NEVER.

8. You quickly get used to different languages being spoken around you, so much so that you've developed a technique to just drown it all out and take in the sights.

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9. And when you return home you will almost definitely experience reverse culture shock, not least because everything is suddenly in English again. 

There's nothing more overwhelming than flying home and going straight to Tesco, trust me.

10. You're going to eat a lot of food that you don't really understand or recognise and it's best to not ask questions.

Just don't ask what's cooking on the camp fire (Picture: Getty)
Just don't ask what's cooking on the camp fire (Picture: Getty)

11. You'll quickly realise that British people really do live up to the stereotype abroad, including you.

12. Whenever you Skype your friends/family at home, you will be asked every, single time about when you're coming home. Even if they already know the date your flight is booked for.

13. You'll realise who your true friends are because they are the ones who stay up until 1am to message you, or sneak off to the toilet at work to accept your drunken phone call. 

14. Prepare for stress. Between lost passports, visa confusion, cash-in-hand work and a friendship group likely to be made up of various cultures, be prepared to think with your head and not just your heart.

You can't wing it the whole time (Picture: Getty)
You can't wing it the whole time (Picture: Getty)

15. You're likely to have at least one romance that you somehow think will survive you both travelling, despite having different travel plans.

It's okay when you have to admit you were wrong about it.

16. You'll always have something to talk about and anecdotes to share.

Whether it's a random restaurant you visited in Italy, or a summer's day spent in Poland, you'll never struggle to think of what to say ever again.

17. You'll make at least one lifelong friend who you will have the most incredible memories with.

18.  And finally, you will never be the same again because there's really no education like the education you get from travelling.

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