The Travel Addiction

I have discovered that travel can become a full blown addiction, not much different than any other substance addiction.  Oh it starts so harmless, a quick trip into Canada or Mexico, just across the border for the day.  It is interesting; it is even a bit exotic.  That leads to a trip across the pond, maybe some place relatively comfortable like England; why not, they speak a somewhat understandable version of English.  You are fascinated by soaring spires and the colorful stain glass of old churches.  It is fun to visit places that are full of the ghosts of history such as the Tower of London, see buildings that are over 1000 years old, and imagine you just saw Queen Elizabeth peek out the window of Buckingham Palace.

That trip was a bit expensive so you tell yourself that you must stay home for a while.  Then you are invited to visit friends who live in Greece.  Why not, it’s not really like traveling alone; there are people to meet you on the other side.  The amount of history in Athens is completely overwhelming, your body is exhausted from walking and your mind is exhausted from trying to understand what you are seeing.  Then the beauty and the serenity of the islands is the exact opposite of Athens.  After staying home for a few years, as your 40^th birthday approaches, you decide to jump right into the deep end of the travel ocean and book a safari to Tanzania. 

Then you are invited to go scuba diving in the Cayman Islands with a group of complete strangers.  After that, it is a free for all of unabashed travel to any location; all around the Caribbean, the South Pacific, Iceland, Peru, and China.  Any place you can find an excuse to go.  Three or four times a year, work be dammed, you have to go.  Money be dammed, you can’t take it with you.  If you don’t have a travel itinerary on your desk for the next trip or two you feel restless, bored.  You spend your spare time searching for excuses to go somewhere and then planning and researching.  You get more and more bold and the destinations just get more exotic.  Finally you end up sleeping in a tent at Everest Base Camp the night before you cross the border from Tibet to Nepal.  The same girl who was a bit timid on her first trip to Mexico is now catching a bus to Kathmandu.  It sneaks up on you and it all happens so quickly, so innocently. 

My advice?  Embrace the addiction; ignore the friends who roll their eyes when they hear where you are going next.  Go anyplace you find interesting, just do it! 

TRAVEL ON!