Why Is Travelling So Addicting?

Hello travel readers! I just took a three month hiatus from travel blogging while I diligently studied for the GRE. Trust me it was just as boring as it sounds.

I really wanted to write about something personal for my first article back so I decided to reach deeper than the proverbial travel tips and top 5s to get at the sadder side of being a travel lover. And the simple question that keeps plaguing my current daily life is this:

Why is travelling so addicting? 

As you well know, my last out of country trip was a 10 day road trip through Costa Rica. Upon returning from a vacation of playing with monkeys and swimming in the ocean, I have now gotten back on the routine treadmill of working weekdays. Weekdays that seem to be moving but going nowhere all at the same time. There is a certain staleness to my everyday life that's only lucid when I've been removed from it. It's not that life itself is dull and undesirable, it's that when I leave it for a brief week I find myself accustoming to the new place I'm in. I start eating the funky cheeses, smelling strange smells, swaying to the local music... and my brain, in its adaptability, starts slowing down time. It wants to roll every new thing on its tongue and grasp the newness. It wants to remember the fishy smell of the beach after sundown and the pant of the howler monkeys in the trees during sunrise.


I read an article once that explained to me that when the brain is in a routine, it speeds up time. It has no need to relearn the path from your house to your job. It doesn't need to pay attention to Microsoft Excel sheet after Microsoft Excel sheet. Your brain turns on autopilot. But when the brain is on vacation, it starts to absorb new things. All of a sudden, you start to notice the tropical trees and the bright green color their leaves turn in the sun. I never look at the leaves in Boston. I've seen them and my brain no longer cares to take in reused information. Vacationing is like turning your senses into a baby once again. When you were an infant and saw your first balloon or box of brightly colored crayons, you were allured by them. Your senses were open to learning. You wanted to put every crayon in your mouth to see what wax tasted like. I think that's what travelling to a new place is like. It's about reminding your brain how to use it's senses again.

Things That Bother Me When I Fly Internationally

1.) People that use more than their allotted seating space. Either because of bodily girth or excessive electronics, there are many frequent fliers that seem to overstep the boundaries of personal seating space. You paid for seat 34D. If you, or any part of your body, is crossing the thin veil of space between the armrest into seat 34E, I will have to start charging you by the mile.

2.) When passengers turn their reading lights on during the overnight portion of the flight. Some of us want to sleep. My sleep mask can only block out so much of the beaming light shining two inches away from my face.

3.) When the in-flight movie isn't in English. Those tiny weeny subtitles on the 1 foot by 1 foot screen five seats in front of me are not a legible rendition of "The Motorcycle Diaries".

4.) When the Sudoku puzzle has already been completed in the In-Flight Magazine. The right to a fresh In-flight Magazine is in fact included in the airline ticket I purchased.

5.) People that want to talk during the flight. My iPod headphones are on and my Hunger Games book is open. All signs lead to I don't want to chit-chat.

6.) The Captain announcing the local temperature in Celsius.  So in Fahrenheit that's Celsius times two add 12 to the 9th power square root of 8 throw it all in the quadratic equation and I get... 300 degrees Fahrenheit? In Scotland? This can't be right.

7.) Babies.  I love babies, just not on planes. I have not met a baby in the history of time who has not cried on an international flight. I feel like this is the oldest complaint in the book. Why haven't we found a way to solve for this yet? Baby noise cancelling ear buds? Sleep hypnosis for infants? There has to be a way for adult passengers and baby passengers to coexist!

8.) Air-conditioning. I realize that all the menopausal women in the world are ever grateful for the frigid temperature of the airline. But I am 24. I feel like I have to bring a down blanket and wool socks on every flight even if I'm flying to Costa Rica. 

9.) People that leave their cellphones on.  The true gamblers of fate. If we plummet to a terrifying death because your cellphone interfered with the planes radio, I will push you out of the plane first.

10.) People asking for help filling out their customs forms. I can't read Czech any better than you buddy and I'm still a little groggy from you leaving your personal reading light on during the duration of the flight so... ask the flight attendant.

I suppose it's always worth the suffering to travel internationally. I personally can't wait for the year 2040 when we all have individual jet-packs. Get on that NASA.

Reasons Why You Should Travel in Your 20s

You're not getting any younger. Time to take that trip to Indonesia that you've been secretly planning since you saw Eat, Pray Love. Here is my exhaustive list of why I think you should travel while you're young.

1.) Your supple young body can handle just about anything in your 20s. You are past puberty, hormones, and weird child illnesses (whooping cough, chicken pox, ear infections to name a few) but young enough that you can still sleep on a hammock and wake up feeling rested.  I slept on a tile floor atop couch cushions at my friends apartment in Italy last year and my 23 year old body bounced right back. As you start to age, that one night on the floor will lead you to chronic lower back pain and extensive chiropractor appointments. Do the hostel surfing now when any flat surface constitutes as a bed.

Floor Sleeping: For Ages 0-30

2.) You have little to hold you down. You are not married, you don't own a home, you don't own a child... you're just you renting a bedroom in someone else's apartment with only about a UHaul worth of stuff. When you're in your 30s, all of a sudden you'll start accumulating mini vans, three car garages, spouses, various kitchen utensils like food processors, crock pots, espresso machines, maybe some dogs, cats, and babies. You'll have so much stuff, you'll have to pay someone to house sit, babysit, pet sit. Travel now when travelling just means telling your roommates to keep your bedroom door closed for a week and to please put your mail in a pile on the counter.

This man definitely needs a vacation

3.) You still remember some high school French and college Russian. Our generation has been bread on culture immersion. Second language classes start around middle school or elementary school.  In your 20s you are still young enough to retain some of that second language knowledge and build on it. Trust me, when you are 40 years old that Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese that you studied in college won't be so familiar anymore. If you can still remember a little francais get your ass over to Paris while you're still young enough to remember how to say "Bonjour".

4.) Your job isn't that demanding. Most likely, your job now is not CEO of a company. If it is, kudos to you for being awesome and please take me on your private jet. Most of us work very hard but aren't really running anything that significant. If your future goal is to make it big, start a business, become a CEO... well those things take time and perseverance and don't leave a lot of wiggle room for that two week backpacking trip in Switzerland that you always wanted to do. So why not do it now before you go back to law school to become the next justice of the peace?

5.) Your friend, small traveler, wants travel companions. You don't even have to spend time looking for that adventurous friend who wants to travel to China and traverse the Great Wall because ladies and gents small traveler will go with you.

Not to sell you too hard but...

I bike.

I hike.

And I enjoy good wine.

 Please find my contact info on "About me" page and feel free to e-mail me about travel inquiries.