We’ve all been there. You’re in the plane, the sunlight is touching your face through the window. You’re thinking of all the adventures, the funny moments, and cool travel content on your film roll. Until the pilot instructs the crew with a monotone “prepare for landing”. The plane starts diving through a thick layer of clouds and suddenly everything is grey. After weeks of being on cloud 9 in a foreign land, you now touch the ground. Waiting one more time to pick up your luggage from the luggage band. You know how everything works, you can predict every moment in this surrounding you call home. There’s no funny-sounding language, no room for imagination, every second feels like it is set in stone. You’re programmed for this environment, you move instinctively, the spontaneity of the day-to-day is gone. This is what I call the “Travel hangover”.
It could hit me quite hard back in my early travel days. You just want to cling to the memories. Traveling can be like a drug, and like anything that feels good, you’ll have to detox from it once you stop experiencing it. You’re balancing again. It never feels like a good thing, but it actually is. Not eating out for the 60th consecutive day is nice, not being bombarded with impulses while you walking the street is relaxing, sleeping without a snoring dorm mate is a blessing.
Home is very boring compared to the excitement of traveling. But it’s good to recharge your batteries. In the end, that’s what you do when you have a hangover right? You’re preparing for the next one. 😉 After two months of full-time traveling through 6 countries, today is a detox Monday. It’s time to recharge the batteries and embrace the boredom for a little bit. Because soon it will be weekend again, and this Traveling Dutchman will be out again, adventurizing for weeks in faraway places.
