On the Road Again

Far out, I love traveling!

I love packing my bags

I love the heartache of saying goodbye to somewhere that’s become familiar

I love getting to the airport and the thrill of all the possibilities

I love checking in

I love watching my bright blue backpack being tagged and sent off to the bowels of the airport where people unseen will make sure it goes to where I’m going

The logistics of it all boggle my mind

I even love going through security

The quiet patience of people waiting in line

To be checked by other people

To make sure that the waiting people

Don’t hurt countless other people

The strange routine of it

Imagine if someone were looking in from outer space

What would they say?! 

I love getting through security and seeing the departures board

And all those destinations

And the way you have to search for the flight that is yours

I love living in Europe

I love that last weekend I was in Geneva

Eating local organic fish

Because the restaurant didn’t have a single vegetarian option

Because in many parts of Europe, being vegetarian just doesn’t exist

You’re vegetarian? Ah! I make you lamb. 

It’s actually true! 

And the thrill of looking out across Lake Leman (not Lake Geneva, the French get cranky)

And seeing Mont Blanc

Rising impossibly like some kind of cloud

Perpetually white

Perpetually beautiful and tall and majestic and all the cliches a mountain should be

And the weekend before that I was in Bath, England!

And walking around the ancient streets with a man dressed in 18th century garb

Showing us where Captain Philip resided (and fell out of a window and died)

And standing at the said Captain’s front door and thinking

Because this man once sailed far away

Because god and country

Because colonies and history

I am an Australian/Spaniard whose ancestors traveled from Poland and the Philippines and Spain and China standing outside an Englishman’s front door in Bath.

It is ridiculous. It is wonderful. It is life. 

And there are friends and family 

Scattered all over this globe

And you think no matter how often you travel

How many places you tick off the destination list

You will never quite manage to see them all even just once

And the excitement of going someplace new

To see things you’ve never seen before

And try foods you didn’t even know existed

(Until last week I had never heard of raclette, and now it’s a firm favorite! The Swiss and their delicious amazing cheeses! Until the week before I had never been to Stonehenge or seen the Roman Baths in Bath! The overwhelming delicious ancient history of it) 

To breathe air that is new and different 

To be a person whose life occupation is discovering the world

To look out at it in wonder

And sometimes be frightened by it

And sometimes be in love with it

And sometimes just be amazed that you’re here

And that you get to see it

The thrill rush joy of it.

The end.