ABCs of Travel
I don’t do many lists here, nor do I often follow the latest “chain posting” trend, but the travel ABC’s sounded really fun. So here are mine.
Slow Travel
The Value of Home: Contrast to Travel
I enjoy and yearn to see the world, but other than that I am a homebody by nature. Actually travel helps me appreciate home in a deeper way. In the reverse, my home life gives me a place to travel away from. The contrast of both is something I need. One without the other seems pointless.
Trying to Do Too Much
Anyone else have days where the number of things you want to do is much bigger than the time allotted? Every day ends up having too many tasks, many of which are of little actual importance. This leads to feeling overwhelmed and needing a vacation. I so have these.
As with a lot of things, I relate this problem to travel and fear in order to sort it out. Travel is something I think I do quite well and do enjoy, and rarely have these problems. And fear is a common source to problems that I am getting better at dealing with.
Penalty of not adhering to my own Slow Travel Ideals
I am a big fan of slow travel. I like being in one place for a while to get it’s feel, to meet locals and see the rhythm of life.. I did not however stick to this ideal while traveling in Greece. And I paid for it, in stress and frustration. I tried to see too much and I did not do as I should have known was right for me and ended up with a few hard days.
Normally when on vacation I will take a week and pick one place to be in; or a guided tour that moves en masse. I love to travel, but the actual moving about is not the fun part for me. It is the people, which almost always means being in a town or with a group. After my boat trip ended in Mykonos I knew I had a week to make it to my boat to Italy in Patras. It was wide open. I could choose to sit on an island or at an Athen’s cafe for a week and just relax. However I had been reading a few guidebooks and got grandiose. Thus began my week of riding the Greek bus system around the country.
Traveler to Expat
Sitting on a ship in the middle of the North Atlantic in 2007, I couldn’t help but wonder. “What the heck did I decide to do to my life?” Just a week earlier, I packed up all my stuff into my parent’s garage, sold my car, quit my job and set out for Europe. I […]
Using Language Schools to Travel Slowly
Hostels? Package Tours? Backpacking? Round-the-World train trips? All wonderful ways to travel, but language schools are an often overlooked resource and can provide a really interesting alternative with a lot of benefits. They often help with housing and visas. Provide a reason to get up in the morning and a large group of friends with […]
Slow Boat To London
I admit it, I pretty much hate to fly. I have flown and I may again, but the last time I was on a plane was over 10 years ago. I just don’t like them and they frighten me. About the time I decided this I also decided I was by no means willing to […]
Dealing with Fear through Travel
Grand admission. I have fears. Lots of them in fact. Enough to have dealt with panic attacks twice for months at a time in my life. The one thing I am not afraid of is Travel. Really. I had less issues moving half-way around the world to a country where I had no job or […]