Unfamiliar foods and recipes, cultural practices, even habits we develop on the road—one of the gifts of travel is how it can change our lives at home.

How Travel Changes Life At Home

“Look at this, it’s brilliant!” I yelled this to Steve from the bathroom of our Airbnb apartment in Stuttgart when I discovered this clever little face cloth mitt sitting by the bath. I immediately knew that I wanted one to take home with me. I hadn’t seen anything like it in Canada. So much easier to use than a plain facecloth! It’s a small thing, but it’s now part of a new way of doing things that I took from my travels.

Similarly, after our first trip to Europe and seeing colourful wash strung out to dry between buildings over narrow streets, we bought a laundry rack for use on our rooftop in summer. Hanging laundry isn’t really a novel thing, but in urban North America, it’s not very common. Seeing its ubiquity in Portugal and Italy inspired us to try this eco-friendly practice. I love outdoor fresh laundry!

It was my niece, Stephanie Shaver who suggested a blog post on this topic. It got me curious to know what habits and customs other travellers had picked up from their adventures. Here are some examples from readers and social media pals:

Each One Half, Our Relationship Never Dies

When Stephanie travelled to Singapore to visit her friend Min, Min’s family introduced her to the cultural backstory of the Asian practice of sharing food. Min’s dad cited a popular song the title of which translates to “Each One Half, Our Relationship Never Dies.” It speaks to the bond that comes with sharing a meal—a very social event where everyone eats from shared bowls of food (“family style” as we call it in the West).

Stephanie says she now thinks about this when sharing a meal with others and always offers others dining with her a taste of something from her plate.

The Dutch Cheese Slicer

Washington D.C.-based blogger Jessica van Dop DeJesus (The Dining Traveler) says that she loves to pick up recipes on the road to make back home. She’s also adopted the habit of making an aperitif before dinner, a practice she picked up from living in Brussels for several years.

One of her best travel finds was the Dutch cheese slicer she was introduced to by her then boyfriend and now husband who hails from Rotterdam. “It made a perfectly thin slice of cheese every time,” explains Jessica.

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“Not even the finest knife can replicate it! He ended up buying me a cheese slicer with a Delft Blue pattern as one of his first gifts to me.” As an avid cheese lover, Jessica uses the slicer all the time.

Shoes Off At the Door

Jeff (an extremely frequent flier over at the paxview blog), picked up the habit of taking shoes off at the door of his home and having guests do the same (unless he’s hosting a big party) from his travels in Singapore, Taiwan, and Japan. His motivation: “It really does keep the house clean, especially when we lived on the shore in Maine.”

When In Rome (And Not)

Reader Cheryl Drachuk says that when in Australia the potato wedges she and her husband ordered in a restaurant came accompanied by sweet chilli Thai sauce and sour cream. They had never encountered this condiment combination and loved it. Now whenever they make wedges at home, that’s what they serve them with.

Cheryl also had a Caprese salad for the first time on a visit to Rome and when her tomato harvest is ready from her garden, that’s what she makes to get a taste of that Italian vacation at home in Winnipeg.

Getting fizzy with it

Columbus-based travel blogger and agile coach  Stephanie Ockerman became a dedicated seltzer water drinker because of travel. She states, “I used to hate when travelling in certain countries that I would have to remember to ask for my water ‘without gas.’

During my Latin American travels, I settled in Buenos Aires for several months. And that’s where I got hooked. People would order a ‘sifon’ at the restaurant, and also had these devices in their homes. Now I can’t get enough. I buy large bottles of seltzer water at the grocery store. I order seltzer water on planes, and I long for it when I don’t have access to it where I am.”

The Gift of Patience

Credit: Barefoot Backpacker

Ian hails from the U.K. and is a prolific blogger over at The Barefoot Backpacker. When I asked him for a contribution to this post over Twitter, this was his response:

“What you have to know about me is that I’m a control freak about knowing both the time and where I am at any point in time. Well, I’ve travelled for a couple of months in Africa – the West and the South – almost entirely by public transport. And buses don’t have timetables. At all. Or, as far as I can gather, fixed routings. The buses take you from A to B and that’s about as much as you ever know. What this means is a lot of waiting around. So if I have any takeouts from those trips that I’ve used back home, it’s patience in the face of transport delays. If my train/bus is late by 10 minutes, so be it, I don’t worry about it anymore.”

Has travel changed your life at home? I’d love to read about it in the comments.

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