Wanderlust

One hobby that has been easy to pursue in the past few sick months is to "travel," but I have not actually gone anywhere. (*Insert longing sigh here*)

However, I HAVE:

-watched a lot of "Rick Steves' Europe"
-skimmed travel books
-Internet "window shopped" for luggage and travel accessories
-watched hours of youtube travel tips
-created packing lists
-made travel agendas
-studied flight rates and train schedules
-followed "Her Packing List" on Facebook
-sort of "mock packed" for a three-month backpacking trip across Europe
-watched movies filmed in European countries
-watched parts of movies where people are on trains (think "White Christmas" and "Harry Potter")

I know. Nerdy.

Actually, I prefer passionate.

The ideas that excite me the most are minimalist packing and going to Europe...and not being a slave to luggage while traipsing around Europe.

Planes, trains, and automobiles with a school-sized backpack: let's go!

I have had lots of experience traveling, but not in awhile. As a military kid, I spent four years in Europe and the rest of my childhood traveling to and living in lots of places.

When I was a senior in high school, I went on a three-week bus tour across the country with my best friend and a bunch of other graduated seniors.

I have travel dreams, literally. I have dreams about that bus trip. For about a year, I have dreamed about traveling to or being in England at least weekly. I felt I was being paged there, especially to see my relatives.

My desire to go became urgent when my dear relative in England became ill suddenly and then passed away a few weeks later. All my diagnoses came when I would have been in England had I gone, and I would have been in very bad shape had I travelled.

Blessedly, I got to be at the funeral in spirit when my cousin read words I had written about his "nan"/my "English grandmother." Her funeral was held in a chapel in Nottinghamshire where legend says Robin Hood and Maid Marian were married; our ancestors are buried in that churchyard.

I try not to covet what I do not have, and so I feel peace about not traveling a lot for now. However, I am equipped with tips, packing cubes, and the know-how to drop everything and go somewhere, and with no checked luggage, thank you.

Since I know I cannot travel with all my treatments and special food needs and condition and stuff at this time, I keep gravitating toward studying it for fun...or distraction. Planning for a trip can be more fun than the trip itself, I've heard. "Travel" has been a fun hobby during chronic illness.