Slowing Down

You may have noticed that since the beginning of this year, my travels have taken a slower turn.

In Mexico, for example, I spent three months visiting twelve cities, as opposed to spending six weeks visiting sixteen cities in New Zealand last year.

I spent three months in the USA, with only a couple of road trips out of St. Louis thrown in for good measure.

I just can’t do fast travel any more.

One week is about the minimum I can spend in any one place; any faster and I find myself moaning and groaning with the effort of packing up and hustling for transport with my bag on.

It isn’t that I have stopped loving travel. It’s just that my travel style has now totally changed.

My travel priorities have also changed. I no longer want to spend one night in a place, eat a mediocre meal in the centre of town and then take off again the next day.

I want to feel like a local, or like I actually did the city I visited justice without writing it off after one day. I want to really be able to give an honest opinion on my feelings about the city based on having spent a decent amount of time there.

I also crave creature comforts these days.

I want to have nicer clothes, not just those that are made for travel. I want to watch TV shows and have a local supermarket and I want to focus on healthy living again, rather than just consuming the local delicacies no matter the calories.

I have come to realise that travel, in all its forms, is spectacular. But it can also take a large toll on your health, your bank balance and sometimes, your sanity.

Right now I am sat in an apartment in Brussels, sipping coffee and listening to 80s pop songs in French. I will be here for the next month, with absolutely no agenda and no pressing engagements.

I can just “be”. I don’t have to set any alarms. I can work when I want. I can cook. I can watch TV shows every evening and eat chocolate in my underwear if I want (and after months of eating terrible chocolate it is so amazing to be feasting on Belgian chocolate!)

It feels deliciously…free.

There haven’t been many times in the last eighteen months I’ve been able to say that. We’ve usually been putting pressure on ourselves to see and do as much as we can, while also restricted by transport, money and time.

I’m also pretty sure that by the number of apartments and amazing houses I’ve stayed in in the last few months, I’m spoilt for life when it comes to setting foot in a stinky dorm room ever again.

Maybe it’s got something to do with the fact that I’m turning 30 next month. Or maybe it’s just that I don’t have the energy for fast travel that I once did.

What I do know is that travel, even if it is ridiculously slow, is still better than no travel at all.