Jet lag, like hangovers, worsens with age. But the pounding head and sleepless nights don’t compare to the pit of depression that is the post travel blues.
It’s now been a whole week since we’ve been back from our six-week-long honeymoon in Europe, and I’ve got it bad. We spent the first few days walking around in a trance, dazed and confused to be back at work, back at home. Happy but overwhelmed to be surrounded once again by friends and family. Well-rested but exhausted with the real world. Yes, our sleep cycles have finally returned to normal – but something still isn’t quite right. I’ve got to cure these blues.
I have always struggled with the comedown after traveling.
That feeling like you’re trapped inside a dream; physically at home but emotionally and spiritually still very much connected to the other side of the world. I try with all my might to remember the feel of the continent. The smell, the old-world ambiance, the history entrenched in every humble street corner. I still remember so vividly…
The sweet, welcoming fragrance of Hotel U232 as you walked from the intense, suffocating heat of Barcelona into the cool, dark, polished foyer, the sleek automagic doors sliding closed behind us;
The look on my husband’s face when he first saw the glass pyramids of the Louvre;
Lying belly-down on the bed in Amalfi, feet happily kicking the air, lazily writing postcards before another of Rosa’s fantastic dinners;
Romping through the snow on the Stelvio Pass, throwing my first snowball.
Being home is so surreal.
I was lucky the last time we arrived home after a holiday. We had become engaged whilst overseas, and had an exciting new project to immerse ourselves in for the following two years – our wedding! We had no capacity to focus on anything else, so it was a brilliant distraction. But when the wedding passed, the inevitable happened. I found myself sinking into the Post Wedding Blues. To counter it, I threw myself into planning our belated honeymoon… and of course, here I am now, on the flip-side, battling the Post Travel Blues.
Thankfully, I have a plan.
A lot of people will advise you to start planning the next holiday straight-a-way, but from my experience, I find you need to have closure on all the amazing experiences you have just had, first. Embrace and honour the memories you have made before moving on. Give them the respect they deserve, make a little place for them in your soul. Whether you do this by putting together an extensive photo-viewing night for your family and friends, or if it’s enough to set up a digital photo-frame in the corner of your bedroom, do something to remember and reflect before you rush on with your life.
Here are my 5 steps for Beating the Post Travel Blues:
- Reminisce. Go through the 10,000 odd photos we took, the metro tickets, the city maps, the postcards we bought as souvenirs, and put together a decent scrapbook of memories.
- Answer all those questions we had in Europe. We love art, culture and history, so naturally spent a lot of time at historical sites, galleries and museums. We had so many unanswered questions at the end of our trip, so what better time to do our research than while reminiscing back at home? (What exactly happened to Marie Antoinette’s children after her beheading? Why did Picasso paint so many variations of Las Meninas? Who was that African-American Jazz singer whom I met in the lobby of our Avignon hotel, boasting about his sold-out concert the night before?)
- Find a new hobby. Part of our philosophising while in Europe included what we wanted to do with the rest of our lives. Working for the man wasn’t part of the master plan. And so while my husband buries himself into his new hobby (scouring the car forums and eBay in search of accessories for our new WRX), I write, and invest all my spare time into my blog – if at first only to keep my sanity in check, and the memories alive, but also to inspire me to write that best-seller I’ve been determined to since I was 7.
- Think about non-travel-related projects to immerse ourselves in. Should we buy a puppy? It’s also about time I helped mum with her website. And my 30th Birthday is coming up – eep!!
- Finally, and only after the above 4 steps, plan our next trip. I promised my husband an around-the-world skiing adventure for this 40th, so that should keep me busy for a while 🙂
What are your tried-and-true remedies for the post travel blues? Your list will no doubt be different to mine, but I hope you, too, find some peace in the cacophony that reality brings.
Coming up next – our Eurotrip, in a series of detailed chapters…
Deep, reflective ,realistic thinking.
Excellent problem solving of post holiday blues.i find going back to the photos and talking about times shared with the man in my life,a positive resolve,