“What do you mean, you’ve booked another trip? You just got home a week ago from a 2-month trip; and not even 10 days ago, were telling me how much you were looking forward to being back. How can you be needing to go away again?!”
This was a question that was posed to me from two different people when they’d heard that I’d booked another trip, after being home not even a week. I don’t really have an answer. It was completely true that when my trip was nearing its ‘end date’, that I’d started to crave ‘home’. I missed my bed. My dog. My private bathroom. Not having to share personal space with dozens of strangers. Being able to read street signs without google translate. Being comfortable. They are all easy things to miss, and towards the end of the trip, I do miss them. But sometimes (ok…often), the allure of travel just seems…bigger.
Travel, the allure of the road, calls to me, like the Horcruxes in Harry Potter, or the Black Pearl in Pirates of the Caribbean (guess what I’ve spent the last week doing…;)) The draw of home, and the reality of occasional desire to be back there is enough to bring me back, but it doesn’t seem to be enough to make me stay.
And to be honest, I’m not sure why there is this unquenchable desire to explore new countries.
There’s the wanderlust gene theory described here.
Then, the Germans, who always have ways with words have a word for it: fernweh: a craving for travel; a longing for places you’ve never been.
Often, I’ll also hear something along the lines of “didn’t you just get back from a holiday? Why didn’t you relax then?” Truthfully, travel isn’t always relaxing. I don’t usually go away to relax. Sure, lounging on a beach is nice and all, but there are only so many cocktails you can drink, and books you can read, before your eyes glaze over…
My do-nothing-day of relaxing in Guam. This was about an hour before my eyes glazed over; two books read and it was time to do some exploring.
When I travel, my touring time is usually spent eating in random local restaurants, trying to decipher local-language menus, checking out churches and museums, or even just getting randomly lost in side streets. It’s checking out theatre performances, riding scenic trains, visiting lookout points, or maybe, every so often, yes, relaxing on a square with a beer or glass of wine.
Maybe that’s why we’re drawn to travel. (I say ‘we’ because I just hope I’m not the only one who thinks like this!) Its seeing new and different things. Its being able to see and do activities that you don’t always find in your home country. It’s meeting new people from all over the world. Its experiencing different cultures. Perhaps most of all, its putting yourself into situations where you may not be completely 100% comfortable, and yet, you figure it out, you grow, you learn, and it makes you stronger, more capable, more confident in your abilities.
So while homesickness may be enough to draw you home for some lengths of time, its just not enough to keep you there. Basically, my desire to travel is most because of these reasons.
1. Travel Challenges You To Learn New Things
When you aren’t at home with your regular routine, often, the day is swallowed up by work, evening activities, household chores and other obligations. It can be all too easy to fall into bed each night and say ‘tomorrow. Tomorrow I’ll start my French lessons. I’ll finish that book. I’ll catch up with [insert old friends name here]’.
When you travel, why not immerse yourself in a new language? Want to spend a day reading your never-ending stack of books-to-read? Do it!
Travel forces you to rely only on your own skills, and if you don’t have them, you’ll develop them quickly.
2. Travel Gives You Perspective
Nothing like a little culture-shock slap to the face to wake you up from your previous life. Nothing like seeing how other cultures live to allow yourself to challenge what you think you know. There are so many sides to every story. Maybe you’ll discover the things you’ve believed your entire life are a little different in a different part of the world.
3. We Are Not Guaranteed ‘Another Day’
‘I’ll go another time’. There are hundreds of reasons not to travel. To put it off for another time. When there’s more money. When you have more time. When you get a promotion/the kids grow up/you retire. If you spend your life waiting to travel later, what do you do if later doesn’t come? Instead of making excuses to travel another time, why not make excuses to go now?
4. Discovering different cultures, at their source.
Sure, you can go and try and visit local culture clubs in your own hometown. You can try and find yourself an authentic restaurant, someone to practice a new language with, a social club or community to join. But usually, people in a new country are in that country to immerse themselves in your language. While they might appreciate someone trying, you’ll probably eventually find its easier to converse in English. Its much easier to immerse yourself in a new culture, a new language, a new way of life, if you go to where it is different; to where you must conform. To where your comfort level is stretched. Plus, to celebrate seasons, festivals, celebrations, where everyone around you is also doing the same…it can’t really be replicated by a few dozen celebrants in another country.
5. Travel makes history come alive
Ok. It’s ridiculously cliched. But maybe also because it’s true. In grade 10 or 11, I remember studying about Germany’s history, specifically with the reunification that took place after the Berlin wall came down. I promptly forgot about it, even though I worked hard on my final project. (To be honest…I don’t even remember it being about the wall. I just remember that Germany needed to be reunite…somehow?) Then, more than a decade later, I found myself at the Berlin wall, learning about the reunification of Germany, east/west, etc, and all of a sudden, like a lightening bolt, I remembered my history project and my brain was like ‘I’ve studied this! I know about this! I didn’t find it useful until this moment, but cool!’
Its one thing to hear about Rasputin and Romanovs, but it’s another thing entirely to see the house they lived in, and the palace they were exiled to, and ultimately, killed at.
Its one thing to imagine seeing the Mona Lisa. It’s something else entirely to push your way to the front of the line, snap your requisite photo, and just enjoy the crackle of energy around you. (That’s the real excitement about the famous painting!)
6. Travel breaks up routine
Good or bad, we are all creatures of habit. Some people need the routine, unable to function unless they have the exact same breakfast, or the same schedule, etc. Some people crave the opposite. While changing things up a little bit is probably a good idea, sometimes, changing everything can be a rejuvenating journey. Traveling to places that you don’t go to all the time can give you a chance to reset your life button.
One of the main reasons it seems travellers go home, is because they are battling homesickness. But homesickness isn’t something to be battled again. Its something to embrace. Go home. Enjoy whatever it was that you missed, that made your adventures pale in comparison to traffic, grocery shopping, bathtubs, friends that have known you forever (some of the reasons that have directed me home). But join me, and don’t feel guilty if homesickness isn’t enough to keep you there for long.
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