Extreme Day Tripping

How I intend to see the world one day trip at a time

One of the biggest challenges I face with travelling is finding a place to eat. The reason for this is that I suffer from anaphylaxis and ARFID. Let’s examine what they are and what they mean for travel.

Firstly, anaphylaxis is something you might have heard of already throughout the course of your life. It’s an extreme and life-threatening reaction to a substance, usually ingested. For me, there is one problematic food that is very common in every country and that is my diagnosed allergy. I’ve been carrying Epipens, which are shots of adrenaline, everywhere with me since 2007 but only had to have adrenaline once, when I travelled to Cyprus, and that was because of an allergic reaction to a medicine rather than a food. So, you could say I’ve been doing well so far at avoiding my allergen.

Secondly, ARFID is slightly more complex. It’s disordered eating and stands for Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder. I’ve been living with this since 1995 but back then, there wasn’t a name for it. You were simply considered a problem that nobody knew what to do with and medical professionals held up their hands in confusion. I finally started treatment for it in 1997 and completed treatment in 2001. I can’t say every day is a breeze, but I’m a million miles away from where I was at my worst.

ARFID affects me now mostly by giving me anxiety around food — which isn’t helped by the anaphylaxis diagnosis. It’s common in autistic people, although I haven’t been officially diagnosed, and means I seek out familiar foods, familiar brands, certain textures and smells and tastes. I try to eat a variety of foods as far as possible but travel can get in the way of that.

So, the best way for me to see the world is to see it one day trip at a time. This means that I can take packed lunches and dinners with me, load up my backpack with snacks and I’m not under any pressure to deviate from that meal plan.

There are many seasoned travellers who will scoff at this idea. Isn’t eating out and trying new foods part of the travel experience?

Maybe for them. You have to remember, ARFID is a serious psychological illness that can kill people from malnutrition. They don’t have that going on in their lives. I do. And I’ll bet a lot of people reading this either identify with it or know a person who fits this description. I don’t believe any of us should be denied the pleasure of travelling just because of the mental health problems we face.

I started my “extreme day trip” plan when my allergies were first diagnosed. The rules were as follows:

1. Wake up in your own bed that morning
2. Go to sleep in your own bed that night
3. Spend less than £100 for the whole day
4. See at least one tourist attraction in that city

So far, I’ve seen London, Paris, Cork, Krakow, Amsterdam, Belfast and Barcelona as extreme day trips. I had plans to see a lot more than that but my son was born and we were trying to navigate parenthood and various other life challenges.

Next year, we have an extreme day trip to Belfast arranged again, during which time we plan to see The Giant’s Causeway, Dunluce Castle and the Dark Hedges from the Game of Thrones series.

My son has other ideas. He absolutely loved the trip to Barcelona, which I will blog about separately, and now wants to see Paris. Being autistic, the idea of waking up and going to sleep in his own bed, while not being under pressure to eat unfamiliar foods and still being able to see a new city is magical to him.

Have you ever done an extreme day trip?