Humans are conditioned by routine and repetition. As children, we request to hear the same bedtime story to rock us to sleep, we take our assigned seats in school, we doodle in our notebooks with our favorite pens and pencils, and we sleep on the same side of our beds with our cherished stuffed animals until these routines evolve into new habits. This familiarity comforts us when we fumble and uplifts us during moments of loneliness and lostness. The inherent need for routine carries on into adulthood and allows us to adapt to new environments.
As we get older, move out of our parent’s house and start traveling the world, whether by choice or obligation, we naturally look for familiar markers – places, sounds, shops, feelings – that allow us to regain the bearings we had as children. This seems particularly true in the case of travelers. Traveling through major cities of Western Europe, for example, is not much of a departure from traveling to most American cities – chain restaurants and recognizable clothing stores line the boulevards, English is usually spoken in some capacity and H&M shops make for visible landmarks on every corner. While it is still possible…
