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Wednesday 25 May 2011

Over. And. Out.

xxx

Tuesday 17 May 2011

Returning home and wanting to stay, is this normal?

So, yes, after suggesting (clearly stating) that the last post was going to be our last post, here I find myself again - posting this time as a blogger, rather than a traveller.

We have been home for a few weeks now and the reality of stationary life has well and truly sunk in. The joy of not having to worry about where we are sleeping each night, the disappearance of that constant where-is-my-passport-I-must-know-it's-exact-whereabouts-at-all-times feeling is a relief. And, most of all, once again being surrounded by people who we know and love and are happy to pick our broke asses up and drive us to the pub and buy us a beer just because they geographically now CAN is a massive bonus (some even bake us cakes! yum!)


But what of the down-sides? Are we feeling bored now that every experience is not a new sensory overload? Do we miss meeting weird and wonderful people from all over the world on a day-to-day basis? Is it strange not to be spending as much time with eachother? Well, yes and no.
I walked from my sisters place in Angel to a friends place in Camden along the Camden Canal the other day - a walk I've never done before - and it was beautiful. Posh redevelopments merged into grimy and disused building sites and all the while barge boats floated by with families and friends aboard, merry in the sunshine. Yes, there was a dead swan bobbing upside-down in the murky waters, a homeless and clearly drunk man was shouting incoherently at everyone who passed and the closer my proximity to Camden locks the stronger the smell of spliffs. But it was a joy. I loved feeling like a tourist again - looking through the eyes of a traveller in a city I call home. Our friends and family certainly fill up the 'weird and wonderful' quota and as for eachother, actually it's been nice to have our personal space back and luckily we live near eachother so it's still easy to meet up.


And so we look to the future; I have began a job hunt in a less-than friendly climate ("the economy will be better when we get back from our trip" - or not) and Rob is busy geeking up on his IT things before embarking on a similar employment mission. The plan is to job-up, settle-down and begin our life in one place together. But why do we not want to travel more?

This is a question that has kind of been bugging me...we had a great year, we loved travelling, there were no major disasters and plenty of plans for future trips so why would we rather stay in London (image: london met uni.com)? Is that normal? Shouldn't we have been bitten by the travel bug? Isn't it proper that we have itchy feet now? Maybe so, but that's just not us...what we're looking forward to now is stability, building exciting and challenging careers and - dare I say it - an income to enjoy spending after a year of strict budgeting.


I'm interested in what other readers and travel bloggers think about this...when you return home do you ever think 'I'd like to stay'? What drives you on? And - most importantly - are we normal?