Ah, the travel bug. As far as recurring afflictions go, this one is a gnarly beast. It sneaks up on me, slowly, over a few months or so when regular life is plodding along and the things I’ve put in the Looking Forward To column are far away and a little less than grandiose. Like, the work trip to Vegas in a few weeks. It’s Vegas! But it promises to be hot and schmoozy – two things I can manage with any amount of grace for very short periods of time. Disney World and all its awesomeness is all the way in December, which, because I am six, is too many months away to seem real.
If you’ll pardon me channeling a certain little mermaid for a moment, I want more. Wait, or is it less? I think it’s less. Less time busting my tush on projects that go nowhere. Less grocery shopping, and litter box cleaning and loads of laundry that I’m just going to wash again in a few days. In short, less of real life. And just for a bit. I want an island with a hammock – make that two – and the smell of brine and Cyprus trees and water so blue it makes my heart take up temporary residence in my throat. I want to walk up crumbling stairs to places so old and magical that I won’t be quite sure that I’m not imagining them. To fall asleep next to my snoring fella, tipsy on cheap wine and wake up in puddles of other-hemisphere sunlight to no plans at all. To wear white linen and tan lines and feel the slight sting of an almost sunburn on the top of my nose. Freckled, smiling, full on new food and adventures.
Instead, because travel is expensive and the reason I’m in debt I might never dig myself out of, I’m sitting on the ottoman in my living room, filling out government forms for work, while the dog lays on the couch occasionally emitting farts that smell like rotten broccoli.
It’s probably a good thing I let my passport expire.
Nooooo. Never let your passport expire! (Says the girl who found out with three weeks notice that she was going to Scotland/Norway last month).
Oh, the travel bug. It’s a painful one. My current wanderlust is aimed at your same (beautifully written) description. Hoping for a Puerto Vallarta getaway with the boyfriend. Financially feasible for this grad student? Er…
Oh girl, do I feel your pain. Hang in there.
I could have written that, or rather, that could have been written about me. I put myself on a very strict financial diet for the next 5 months. Past excursions should be paid off then. And the first thing I’m going to do – plan the excursion I can actually save for up front!!! I’m chomping at the bit to not book anything before then – not traveling is so…….dull. There is evidence in my burly work attitude that I have a need to travel, soon.
You should go to New Orleans for a long weekend. The hotel rates are crazy cheap in the summer, and the French Quarter is old and crumbling enough to satisfy that desire. You’re close enough that flights should be pretty inexpensive. Maybe you won’t have the ocean, but it really is one of my favorite vacation spots.
But you’re sitting on an ottoman! As in Ottoman Empire as in Turkey! Crumbling stairs and all! And that smell – not doggie gas, but the rank authenticity of the souk. Does that help at all? Nah, probably not.
Ahh wanderlust. I hate it too. But trust me, the wait for Disneyworld will be worth it!
Had I only known, Fish.
I am a Oahu addict (July ’08 and May ’09) who goes for the unpopulated simplicity of parts of the island and who lives to be woken by the sounds of the morning surf.
Last week, on a lark, I looked at airfare for flexible dates through the end of the year. I knew July, August and September were out of the question due to work and travel to see our families.
$272.00 roundtrip, per person, from DFW. Negotiated until I got the deals I wanted on car and a vacation rental.
Needless to say, we are going in October.
That sounds really nice. But unless flights are free, there’s no way. Inexpensive is relative and right now, I’m relatively broke.
I have the travel bug too. It sucks as I’m skint as the Brits say and can’t justify any extra spending. However, since I live in LA, I may venture just a little ways out of the city for a day break. That may cure it.
OMG – you SO stole my escapist daydream and made it better. Behavior like this is why I won Elliot Stabler.
I’d settle for a day without a Michael Jackson story or some governor from one of the Carolinas crying like a little girl on tv. That’d be a good vacation too.
Your post explains exactly how I feel right now! I just purchased a ticket to visit China in November, as my boyfriend will be studying there for 6 months. Smart? Probably not. But I have a problem staying in the same country for more than 12 months…besides after a few months of long distance, I think a plane ticket and some face time will make it worth the price.
Hey Fish, do you think we could get jobs being paid to scope out and travel to awesome places?
Sigh… very evocative writing… and I say this as someone who is lucky enough to happen to be living in a tropical paradise (practically) this year. Reminds me to take more advantage of that sunshine at the weekends and cultivate more freckles. That or look at old photos during the working week!
This was awesome. I can totally relate. I get reeeeaaaalllll nostalgic for the travel dust also. Even living abroad, I get all crazy and start browsing plane tickets and hotels and world maps and what not.
My travel bug, though not dead, has been in a coma for quite some time thanks to my own stupidity. Passports don’t survive trips through the laundry, I learned, and upon my return from a month in Scotland and Ireland, my passport did hard time in both the washer AND dryer. Shame, too, because my collection of stamps and visas was becoming impressive. Does wonders for the finances, though, and enabled me to effectively ground myself further by buying my own house. A blessing and a curse…single woman homeownership may not be all its cracked up to be.
Wanderlust: it’s a grand thing.
I am never without it so I understand. Honestly, I would give up all the many things people consider necessary or desirable in their daily lives to be on an island hammock somewhere, or better still, peering into a volcano pit (because travel for me is also about adventures I don’t get in everyday life). Hope december comes soon enough for you and Vegas has a cool week when you are there.
I’m glad someone else is just as pissed about having to stay home and not go further into debt over a spontaneous vacation. What once was “healing” sort of turned into a permanent need to get away. Oh well.
Hey Heather!
You haven’t posted about your routine with Jillian Michaels/30 Day Shred in a while. Are you still keeping that up? Or have you moved on to a gym? Please share!!
Oh yes, I have wanderlust too. But there are termite inspections and work on the house and A/C repair and major car maintenance. Too much real life getting in the way.
I completed 30 days of the Shred, then met my boyfriend and promptly gained 20 lbs. I know. For shame. However, I’ve been back at it the last two months, incorporating 20 minutes of exercises from the 30 Day Shred and 20 minutes of intervals on the treadmill. The Shred by itself is probably more effective overall (because she is so relentless), but not at 6AM with downstairs neighbors. Our floors are too thin for all the bouncing!
All this was bottled up in my head and you let it out. For days I’ve been thinking about it and wanting to write about it and then I read it here, exactly what is in my head.
“To wear white linen and tan lines and feel the slight sting of an almost sunburn on the top of my nose. Freckled, smiling…”
YES! YES!
So yeah I know I am a little late with this but just catching up on your posts! And I have to say OH MY GOD…….Disney in and of itself is effin AWESOME, but Disney AT CHRISTMASTIME…..wholy molly fantastic! Please do yourself a favor and go see the Osbourne Spectacle of Lights at Hollywood Studios………your welcome! HAVE FUN! I am going in October for Haloween and am slightly peeing my pants in anticipation! (also sorry for so may exclamation points, but really DISNEY!)