7 months of fun and adventure and now it's back to reality with the biggest bump ever. How does everyone cope? Is it easy to settle down again or will I have itchy feet for life?
We read a blog today that sums this up so eloquently that we need not share our impressions and thoughts but suggest you read theirs.
Quarter Life Crisis
I have cut and pasted a paragraph from their blog that says it so well.
We settled into a life of normalcy and routine back at home. It was refreshing to sleep in the same bed every night, walk familiar streets and see beloved faces every day. Life was comfortable and damn good, but we knew it couldn’t last. We have a sickness, you see, a fever that can’t be broken. We contracted it in South America, Africa, Asia and Europe (no not swine flu). There is no cure for our disease; one can only treat the symptoms. Every day, we battled to keep an outbreak at bay. We continued on with our lives: Jenny dominated the UCSB teaching masters program. I found a way (with the aid of some prescription amphetamines) to salvage my wayward academic career in the San Francisco State journalism program (you may lament the drastic improvement in my syntax that could suck some of the personality out of these writings. I promise not to be too coherent). Things were going swimmingly until the itch began to fester once again. It starts as a whisper when you see a cool show on the Travel Channel, then becomes louder as you revisit old photographs, and finally grows to a deafening roar when you realize you don’t even know where you your passport is kept anymore. After much debating and a staggering amount of logistical work, we decided to conquer the next goal on our massive list of travel objectives: live abroad.
Reply to this and still keeping this thread going...
As some people have already said, planning another trip is the only real solution I've found for post-travel blues. The short trips/weekends away are lovely in their own right - but it's just not the same as packing your passport and finding yourself trying to decipher a strange menu (I live in Australia, so unlike those lucky people in Europe, a weekend away here is never going to be overseas).
The other things that help are reading travel blogs of people who have travelled to places on our short list; and I find going through our travel photos and re-reading our blogs provides some escapism too 😊
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In response to: Msg #159235
Merry 80%!o(MISSING)f my non-work reading is travel related! We also have an ongoing travel wish list that keep changing whenever we watch Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations 😉
Next trip will likely be in 5-6 months...we're in that lovely stage of having narrowed it down to two countries 😊
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In response to: Msg #159290
Hi Ren,
Great to hear you are beginning some travel plans. 5 to 6 months is not too far away....hopefully, it will go fast. Wow, you've already got it narrowed down to 2 countries. That is fantastic! Care to share? or are you waiting until you have completely decided?
Reply to this This is a great topic and I'm happy to see it's lasted roughly 3 years. I've had these 'post-travel blues' many times and I can relate to a lot of stuff being said on this thread.
I came to a personal resolution to this constant feeling of wanting more each time my travels were over. And it ended up being the best decision I ever made. Living abroad. I wrote a brief explanation on how I came to this conclusion here:
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In response to: Msg #159348
Matthew nice article. I completely understand that need to immerse yourself in a new culture - by the time I was 16 I had lived on three different continents (many thanks to my adventurous parents). That feeling of needing new experiences has never left me, and I've packed up and moved many times since (and sadly had to give away my cat once too). Every time I visit a new country I always assess if I would consider returning to live there 😊
Reply to this Thanks Ren/Andrew. I can relate to the adventurous parents thing, too. My father was in the Air Force so you can imagine how often we had to move as well.
Giving away the material possessions isn't too hard, but the cat, now that was a bit of a tear-jerker for me.
Happy travel, and happy life to you both! ^_^
Reply to this Thanks Matthew! Happy travels to you too 😊
Hey Merry, our current favourite places to live are Granada (Spain) and Rome (Italy)...and after our recent trip, Istanbul has been added to that list. We just have to balance having fur-babies with travel/overseas living. We are really hoping that a stress-free pet transportation system will be invented sometime soon.
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