Where on earth..?

Almost back at home - and thoughts about it all

Written on the plane back to Europe/London and almost home:

Not everything is fun while travelling. Given my backproblems, flying was the part I dreaded the most. Sitting on a packed flight is never fun, doing it for many hours when your back can't take it is another story altogehter. But a bit of resourcefulness can get you a long way. Of all our flights, I only had to sit at my own seat during two! We played games with Raine, reserving seats in the aisle & window, thus minimizing the risk that someone comes between us. I always asked for a seat next to a spare one and often got it. I had a note with me from my doctor, stating that sitting is bad for me. Once the aircraft was boarded, there were often leftover seats that I immediately rushed to before the others got them. In all I was lucky, at a few flights I got 3-4 seats all for myself! Much better than business class say I.

While travelling it is easy to get caught up in the place. What can happen is losing touch with yourself. Taking time to slow down and remember what's important allows for living your own life and only take up the impressions you want to. This is something I found useful especially in the US, were the values of life can be very different from European ones. You also cant "do" things every day, like a tourist would. In many places we deliberately tried to slow down, thus not "seeing" everything, but maybe more experiencing the places. This is one of the most important differences between a short and a long trip. If the weather is bad, who cares? It will be better next week. Anyway, when you have really nice weather for a long time, you do enjoy it, but you dont appreciate it as you do when it's rare. If you don't wanna leave the hostel; dont. You can do that tomorrow. Only when we forgot ourselves and in some places tried to see it all, we got stressed out.

Previously, when meeting people travelling for a long time (and there are many, you wouldn't belive), I always wondered what it must feel like, circling the globe, going on and on and not going home in between. Now I know. It does feel a bit like an adventure. Travel mode becomes normal, back home odd and distant. You get used to having just a suitcase of things and cheap food and you don't really mind. Now and then you dream of the amenities back home, but you know you can't have them and the freedom at the same time. What happened to me is I lost some of my realistic and reasonable views of life, got caught in the alternative reality that is travelling. It felt like a parallel universe. Was it real life, or is real life what you do at home; going to the office every day? I also picked up impressions from everywhere. If staying in Manhattan for a bit longer, I might have picked up the huge attitude of the people there ;-) What I have realized, is how important it is to do the things you want to. Even if it can be uncomfortable. Otherwise you'll become bitter and jealous, which in my opinion is among the worst things that can happen.

After 6 months of travelling I am in many ways looking forward to going back home. Maybe my restless soul really got what it needed, cos now I feel quite content about living a "normal" life. The journeys I'm planning now can easily be done as 4-week holidays. Of course, I'll take with me my new impressions and my never fading list of ideas I wanna do.

posted by Carina @ 1:15 AM