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Wanderlust

Maggie

Image by Gerhard Gellinger from Pixabay

Day 338

Last night was a restless, sleepless night. I do not know why. I tossed and turned and sleep just would not come. This does not happen often, but when it does, I just succumb. There was nothing troubling me and indeed I was tired, but somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind, something was stirring.

I got up and worked on my family genealogy a bit. I found a few errors in my family tree and worked to correct those. It is so easy to go down a rabbit hole when chasing people you do not know. I found a few genealogy pages from Ireland and England (where the majority of my ancestors originated) and spent some time chasing names and dates and found nothing conclusive.

At that point I was too tired to focus so I started fantasizing about a trip I would love to take. Somewhere distant but somewhere that calls to me. I have not been to a lot of places overseas, but what little I have traveled, I enjoyed immensely.

We have been to Switzerland, Venice, and Portugal. I searched for a few blogs people had written about the places I have visited. People seemed so disappointed in places that intrigued me. I wonder if there is not a certain element of the population who cannot be pleased.

I spent some time looking at possible trips to take — nothing serious, just looking. I spent some time browsing the trips organized by the Smithsonian Institution. They have trips to some common destinations for U.S. travelers and some less frequently visited destinations. I was intrigued by several trips. I am not sure we would take an organized tour or plan something ourselves, but it was fun to peruse their catalog.

If you would like to browse, click here.

When we traveled on prior trips, we had someone organize them because there is so much that we did not know. It was a good decision.

Right now we are not planning a trip. I am just having a little wanderlust.

“I need to move around a bit.
To shuffle my surroundings.
To wake up in cities I don’t know my way around and have conversations in languages I cannot entirely comprehend.
There is always this tremendous longing in my heart to be lost, to be someplace else, to be far far away from all of this.” 
― Beau Taplin

 

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20 thoughts on “Wanderlust”

  4. Wanderlust is a good thing.

    And there are so many destinations that are great in the world.

    European destinations are probably the simplest; shorter flights, more English-speakers now, and easy to arrange on your own (or with a group).

    I have a good friend in Asheville who loves Road Scholars trips — you might check them out, too, but there are LOTS of great tour companies, especially those that specialize in smaller group/educational trips. Explore!

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  5. I too advise you to enjoy trips and experiences outside your neck of the woods. So many places to see and things to do. I think my favorite country to visit was Ireland. The people and sites were amazing. Next would be New Zealand and Australia. Again beautiful countries and people. Our time in England, Greece, and France was too short. We traveled with 30 middle school kids. There is much I would like to see without kids. Happy wanderlust.

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  6. That’s a great quote from Beau.
    I spent a lot of my life feeling that same wanderlust. But since I turned 60, I felt it fade away. The realities of modern-day economy class travel hold no appeal for me any longer. 🙂
    Best wishes, Pete.

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    1. I really liked the quote, too, Pete. Travel is not fun. Especially economy travel. I would still like to take a trip or two, but who knows if that will ever happen.

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  7. I fell into an ancestry.com wormhole for the first time last month and didn’t come up for air for 5 days. I was shocked, amazed and terrified by how much information is just publicly available, floating out there in the ether(net) about my family that I never knew.

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  9. Oddly enough I wrote about travel today, too. I like reading those Smithsonian travel itineraries because they seem so complete and educational. I’ve been on organized trips with a leader and it was fun, but our best vacations have been when we’ve been on our own, exploring what interest us in the moment. Not what we *should* be interested in.

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  10. My grandfather traveled a lot and he pretended that his four grandchildren were a travel agency! We ended up getting many brochures from all over the world and had a great time planning our imaginary trips. Looks like a better use of insomnia than worrying.

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