ChasinJason1313

So we have all had our travel withdrawals. We come back and the world doesn't seem to add up in the way it did before we left.

I think I might have a unique problem(tho I hope I'm not the only one). I've been home form my last serious trip for over a year and I have had a constant feeling of loss. Not only loss of adventure but a loss of who I am. I go through everyday life knowing exactly what's going to happen to me every day. Yet through all this I have this prevailing feeling that the sky is going to come crashing down on me at any moment. As easy as my life feels right know, I have a constant feeling like it is going to be revealed for the fraud that it is.

At the same time, you can throw me in a country I've never been to with a language I don't speak and I feel completely comfortable. I feel like I am in control of my destiny when the chips are most stacked against me.

Am I wierd? Check that....I know I'm weird. Am I weirder than normal????

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Live life so there is standing room only at your funeral

The beauty of this world will last
Much longer than its men
No need for man to test this fact
Enjoy the view instead----Me(Part of a longer poem)

Somnambulation

No, I know kinda how you feel. Mabye its just that while in other countries it doesnt seem like real life, whereas back home does because its what youve always known real life to be like. The escape from real life is refreshing even in the bad times

urOZm8

I tend to get travel withdrawals when work is shitty or something is getting me down. It's at that time I begin to wish I was at a particular place I went to whilst travelling.

I think you feel you are the master of your own destiny when your travelling because you don't have responsibilities and can change your plans on a whim.

After a year I am still trying to work out my purpose or direction in life...

ev

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The Monsignor

I get some of the same stuff, when i'm home... I get deployment withdrawls when I'm stuck home.. especially when stuff gets heavy

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"A bad carpenter always blames his tools!" - Grandpa Boris

Make war, not love! It's safer!

Rozza

Welcome to re-entry shock. it sucks, totally. first little while you get back, your like a super stair, you feel healthy, look healthy, your walking tall, your a leader, you have hundreds of stories to tell, scenes to describe. But then the monotinous (sp?) grind of society, work, school and family eventually get to you and make you feel all the more bitter about what they have taken away from you.

it makes me feel lost, and even anxiety at times, but if you traveled with any one, just meetup with them, it makes it slightly more bearable

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Mountains are the means, the man is the end. The goal is not to reach the tops of mountains, but to improve the man.
- Walter Bonatti, Italian climber.

Past Trip Albums:
Norway '05 Album

"'Kings. What a good idea.'Whoever had created humanity had left in a major design flaw. It was its tenedency to bend at the knees."
- Terry Prachett

TheJake

We are all screwed jason.
I know what you mean about loss of who you are. I feel the same way. I question my entire personality now because I don't feel real, i sometimes think i am forcing myself to be this person but I don't know who i would be if i didnt force myself to be me...

^And that's only gonna make sense if you're where I am and where I think Jason is at....

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MolsonGirl

I've made the complete circle at this point.. I had my withdrawl, got settled and comfortable. and now I'm suddenly dying to go sit on a beach somewhere and do nothing for a month.. I don't even need to move around.. just one spot... one month... beach bum.

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foofiter

Yep, I call it the travel hangover. The only cure seems to be "hair of the dog" (ie more travel). I am quite familiar with being unanquainted with my purpose in life. I honestly believe that me and maybe some of you travel to try to find that purpose. We got back and realized that we didnt find it and the "hangover" kicks in. I am about to travel for roughly 4 months and I am all excited as I was before. I am still searching for that purpose. And if I don't find it well I had a hell of a time, saw some cool stuff, and got some great pictures, memories, and stories that I will always have.

I am at a crossroads in my life since I am recently single, unemployed, and taking on debt to travel. I will come back to a storage unit and my friend's couch. I will basically start over. I find it refreshing and I hope things go well. I am probably going to start my own business with my Dad so I can have as much time off as I want (in the long run at least).

That's enough ranting. Thoughts anyone?

Foo

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"To Alcohol! The cause of--and solution to--all life's problems." -- Homer J. Simpson
"I didn't get to where I am today worrying about how I am going to feel in the morning." -- Ron White (Blue Collar Comedy Tour)
"I was born to lose and destined to fail." -- Mike Ness, Social Distortion
"Eat healthy, exercise daily, die anyway" -- My motto
"Everyone I know, goes away, in the end...I will let you down, I will make you hurt..." -- Johnny Cash (NIN Cover of "Hurt")

I am traveling around the world until I find something that makes me want to stop. I am an aspiring photographer and hope to find whatever it is I am looking for...

TheJake

I am so going to start my own business.

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Rozza

We are the Dregs of society,
we are all addicted to this substance,
We will only ever find comfort in the ultimate Loneliness of being a stranger
We will see ourselves become alive, and die a thousand times
It's this Drug, our heroin, Our Acid, that allows us to see the world with such clarity.

It's this addiction that gives our lives such a beauty, that most will never be able to know or grasp.

__________________
Mountains are the means, the man is the end. The goal is not to reach the tops of mountains, but to improve the man.
- Walter Bonatti, Italian climber.

Past Trip Albums:
Norway '05 Album

"'Kings. What a good idea.'Whoever had created humanity had left in a major design flaw. It was its tenedency to bend at the knees."
- Terry Prachett

juliagulia

its creepy that you guys are describing this and it sounds like the way i feel, even though i havent extensively travelled yet. i just feel like something is amiss and... weird i dunno...

sometimes i dont even know why im still here (here being maryland.. not the world.. dont want to worry and tpunkers). I've made it quite clear to anyone who will listen that once im over with high school im only going to college so that i wont have to hear from my mother how i threw my life away to travel. if i go out traveling after college and it doesnt work out, i can always come back because i have a degree.

(end rant)

so yeah i guess its just mankinds's curse that we will forever be thirsty for something. different people have their different quenchers. for some its money, wealth or fame. for some its love friends and family. maybe its success, knowledge and work. some its drinking partying and letting everything flow.

...for some its travelling and seeing new things and expanding their horizons and learning new things and leaving the space in which they are most comfortable (which might actually be UNcomfortable... ahh the paradox of life)...

but we all know that everything must be in moderation... You can't have all of one... Because if that one fails, you have nothing else to quench you and youre emptier than ever... so when you leave one, a little part of you is empty... I guess we will always BE a little empty...

I have no idea if that made any sense. I just kept typing... Right now as I'm typing, what I was typing before doesn't make much sense anymore...

I dont even know if this is what you're actually feeling...

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Reminiscing about: Brazil, Canada, Greece, Turkey, Mexico, England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Portugal, The Netherlands, USA

Living In: Belfast, Northern Ireland


Next up!

Poland (February!)

bellelass

Wow. That's amazing Roz. We're the marginal sub-culture much emulated by the mainstream. Hippies of our generation.

I'm always thirsting for adventure of some sort. Sounds silly. Wanted to be a member of the Dutch Resistance as a kid, then I found out WW2 was over and there wasnt a demand for that sort of thing. Same with running a stop on the Underground Railroad. Then I wanted to be a lady pirate in disguise. Really. Then I decided to just be a plain old sailor, until I realized the days of swashbuckling and tall masted wooden ships was over. I was quite disillusioned until I discovered the power of words- I could create other worlds, other lives, other times on my own. Share it. Since then I've developed this awful habit of not really living where I am. Part of what gets me about travel is that I don't spend so much time in my head.

I guess its the thrill of a new place. I read things about Magellean, Cook, Ibn Battutah, Marco Polo, Ibn Fadlan and envy them. The world was a mysterious unknown. There was something to be discovered just over the next horizon. Just a little further, just a few more miles. We dont have anything to discover. Open any book, turn on any channel, flip through a brochure, and there's the world- sanitized and safe and tied up in bows for your tourist dollar. Discoveries are personal.

I'm going to graduate and make travel my career, I think. Whether as a flight attendant, a bum, a diplomat, a writer, and aid worker, or a combination. I dont really feel many ties to "home," dont really care if I have things, or a house, or a white picket fence. something to keep off the cold, food in my stomach, and satisfying work is all I need.

Jason, read Vagabonding by Rolf Potts. Oh heh, he's got a website, too. http://vagabonding.net/ Check it out.

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"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did."
-T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom

juliagulia

Wow I went to that site and I read a excerpt from the book...

So going to buy that sometime soon...

__________________
Reminiscing about: Brazil, Canada, Greece, Turkey, Mexico, England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Portugal, The Netherlands, USA

Living In: Belfast, Northern Ireland


Next up!

Poland (February!)

Kevin-L

so true, exactly the way i feel and i've been back less then two weeks. the day after i got back i started looking up tickets for this summer. feels like the only thing that will make it go away is to head back out.

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Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.
-Ernest Hemingway

weirdbeard

Yeah, I feel the same way you guys do even though I've never been outside of the U.S. I've travelled to over 30 states and taken month-long road trips slept in the Arizona desert, hiked glaciers in Colorado, bar-hopped in N.Y.C. had so many crazy experiences and every time I've done it, I felt so alive and full of energy. I never sleep when I'm on a trip no matter how tired I get. There's just so much to do and discover in life and it's all waiting there. It does get frustrating sometimes but I'm sure most everyone here will get back on the trail sooner or later. That's what this site is for right? To make us feel better about the world and connect with other people around the globe no matter what nationality. So give yourselves a hand people!

Chill398

I hope I am in no way beating a dead horse but I too suffer from withdrawl. Ive been home from my 2 month trip around Europe for a few months now and dont know quite how to feel. When I was on the road I woke up early everyday (hangover or not) with the feeling that I was doing something. Now back at home I wake up with a feeling of sedation. The excitment of just being there is gone; Replaced with a feeling of well... just being.

Right now, sitting in front of this computer screen I feel far removed from my nirvana.

TheJake

Ditto on steph's reference to Vagabonding. Super good book.

Oh and being a bum is definitly my plans for life as well steph. Not just a bum though. A travelling bum who helps people instead of being helped. Maybe bum isn't the right word. More like a traveling visionary... I like that better!

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The Monsignor

Funny, that's how I feel... Though, with the kids, I'm gonna have to learn new skills in order to balance the travel with the family (I can see a whole new section on Tpunk soon "Backpacking with the Crumbsnatchers")

I'm pretty sure it's something genetic. My father was a traveller until responsibilities weighed him down and he had to stop. My mom and her family were refugees, travelling across 2/3 of the globe to get here!

The lack of frontiers really is upsetting... It's hard to go somewhere where western culture hasn't already reached, or to explore somewhere that really doesn't see many tourists...

I'm coming back from this deployment, already trying to figure out how to get back on the road again...

We're probably a genetic survival trait in action... the ones that are always looking to see what else is out there. Spreading our species away from the comfort of village and hearth to new territory - ensuring that some of us, at least, will survive any disasters that happen back home...

I'm ready to go again... I'll probably start smaller, my own back-yard (the PNW - Canada, etc) then work my way further afield (you may yet see me with a sailboat - talk about a floating meet-up - hmm)

__________________
"A bad carpenter always blames his tools!" - Grandpa Boris

Make war, not love! It's safer!

expatben

To be honest this is one of my biggest fears. I have been an expat for 12 years and after a round the world trip I am planning I will be back in Canada for university...but will I survive? I know you can do it man. Maybe plan a trip to help-like a nicoteen patch to ween you off the cravings.
XPat

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I have been to: Canada, USA, Iceland, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Poland, Germany, Sardinia, Switzerland, China, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Morocco.

Do to list: [color=blue][color=black] Australia, New Zealand, Austria India and Bolivia.

[color=blue][i][font=Verdana][color=black]"I'm just another stranger lookin' for the promised land"

whereshegoes

No you are not weirder than the rest of us. After a week of being home, I am in it. Up to my ears. I am going through it full throttle. I have been here before but not to this extent. Last time I made a website about this very topic...kept me busy for a few days. Maybe I should read it again. TravelCastle

This time after 3.5 years, I am really home and staying here for a while. To make sure of it, I moved back into my house.

Truth is, I am tired. Completely spent. I couldn't go even if I wanted to because my energy is so low. I have the time and money and even a job that allows me to work from anywhere in the world, but I am home. I don't know why. But I need to be here right now.

And I don't fit in. Not even a little. I didn't fit in before but now I am even that much more aware of it. I keep looking up towards the heavens and wondering when the mothership is coming to take me home...

E.T. has nothing on me.

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Carmella

WhereSheGoes