I recently got back from what was, for me, a great adventure. I blogged each day during my three-week vacation in Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Finland, and Iceland, and having returned home with many wonderful memories and well over a thousand photographs, I have come to realize that what I miss most about my trip is writing about it.
I love to travel far more than I get to do so. Time and money are the obvious obstacles, but there are less obvious ones, such as the desire to plan carefully and do it right, the overwhelming array of options and an inability to decide where to go next, advancing age and retreating energy, the lack of a travel partner, and, though I am loath to admit it, language and cultural barriers. I’d like to think I am willing and eager to immerse myself in any foreign environment, but I’d by lying if I denied that it can be wearying and frustrating to attempt to do that without speaking the language or knowing the local customs. If I ask, I immediately reveal my alien status; if I guess, I probably do the same, with the added embarrassment of possibly (probably) guessing wrong.
I won’t allow any of the obstacles to prevent me from traveling, although the frequency and duration of future travels will be necessarily limited. In between the actual trips, I will write about travel from the perspective of someone who is either dreaming about or planning my next great adventure.
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