In the traveler and expat circles we tend to have friends and contacts all over the place. In these situations people often get labeled with their country of origin. “The Spanish girls or the guy from Canada or a bunch of Australians.” Does our “country of origin” define us in some way or is it just a convenient label?
Travel is something that frees us, well at least that is one goal. We hope to be free of responsibility or things that hold us back. Even so we carry a lot of things with us on a trip. Some of them are in our backpacks, others in our head. This emotional baggage can be as weighty as the physical stuff. What happens when you bring more baggage than just your smartly packed carry-on?
Going to a place, seeing sights and then moving on to the next place is often how travel is portrayed. There is an excitement to see the new and go to a new place and a bit of sorrow to leave. Leaving new friends or leaving without seeing a sight or experiencing something brings up some bittersweet. On the other hand, have you ever been somewhere where you were really happy to leave?
I make no great secret that when I get hungry I am not as nice a person to be around. Travel days just have this all set up. Early waking up means maybe missing breakfast. Always on the run means eating fast food or whatever looks good at the bakery. Sometimes.. horror.. you even miss meals all together.
Sally at Unbravegirl wrote a post this past Sunday about her search for the “authentic” travel experience in Thailand. It is a good article and the comments are just as interesting. This post grows out of a comment I left there; and might make more sense if you read her article first. I come to pretty much the same conclusion as her and most of the commenters, but I was interested to see what would come out of my mind when put to that subject.
Bring us some figgy pudding; bring it right now. We won’t leave until we get some… so goes as version of “We Wish you a Merry Christmas”. While this is a well known song in the US, none of us have a clue what figgy pudding is. This post will not change that as it is about traveling figgy pudding and the tradition that grew out of a joke.
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.
I have been in Germany for now 3 years. Far longer than I originally expected. I’m quite happy with my decision, but it still boggles the mind that this is my life. All of the little (and big) choices along the way led me to the situation that I am in right now. And that is actually a pretty cool thing to reflect on.