When You Spend Christmas Overseas, Far Far Away From Home…

TRAVEL STORIES BY GABE
5 min readDec 27, 2023
Photo by the author

What was it? My 5th Christmas away from home? Maybe my 6th? I’m not sure. I just remember that it was very similar to all the other ones I spent in a foreign country. A mixture of happy and sad moments. With my chosen foreign family, but away from my closest ones from my home country.

Spending Christmas abroad is hard. Very hard.

Throughout the entire year, there I was, looking for cheap flights on Skyscanner. Trying my very hardest to stay awake during the night hoping to find a great deal online. But nothing shows up. I close the laptop, lean the back of my head on the pillow, and look up at the ceiling for a while. I try to go to sleep. As I close my eyes, a very warm tear streams down my face. It’s expensive to go home. I wish it were like it is for my European friends. They can easily hop on a Ryanair flight and in 2 hours be hitting home. Me? I need to get on at least 3 flights. Flight one, then connection. Flight two, connection again. Flight 3, finally home. Man, we’re talking about the minimum of 16 hours of travel time. Home is far. Sadly.

Every year is the same. Months go by and all I can think of is how lonely I feel during Christmas time. But also how happy and excited I feel. Being an immigrant comes with a million different feelings to deal with. It…

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TRAVEL STORIES BY GABE

I am a slum boy from Brazil who visited 30+ countries. My moving stories will inspire you to achieve your travel dreams no matter where you come from