Oh, Travel: the Ups and Downs of Travel

The highs I have experienced while traveling are some the greatest I’ve ever felt in my life. The achievement of riding my bike up & down crazy hills in Maine. The sense of awe that came after climbing the Duomo in Florence & looking out across that beautiful red-roofed city. The sounds & tastes of lunching on a simple baguette sandwich while sitting with my feet hanging off a city pier in southern France. The joy of introducing my love to the city that I love.But with highs come eventual lows. The restaurant that came highly recommended & turned out to be awful, leaving us with the feeling of a wasted night on an already too short trip. The flight delays that anyone who travels enough eventually experiences. The disappointment that comes when something you really want to work out doesn’t.

I felt that disappointment at the end of last week when a trip that was coming together quickly, spontaneous travel at its best, was stopped dead in its tracks. It was to a destination I had always read about, admired, & hoped to visit one day & I was so close to that day being sooner than I had ever imagined. I was already planning out itineraries in my head, deciding what color my new winter coat should be, & doing Google searches to find all the wifi hotspots. It was all right there.

I had finally gotten a free moment in-between meetings to dig out my credit card & sit down at my computer, & our bosses had both finally approved our time off; the most excellent package deal I was going to book was just a few mouse clicks away.

Until I clicked on the little drop down menu & our departure date wasn’t listed. I furiously texted my husband “Call me ASAP.” Another text “Departure date sold out.” As I scrolled through the other departure dates, I realized they wouldn’t work for us. The one that did sort of work only had single rooms left & they were three times as much. Another text “Whole trip falling apart.” Tears filled the corner of my eyes & a knot rose in my throat. Our spontaneous travel was apparently not spontaneous enough.

In my mind, I know there will be other trips &, yes, even opportunities to go on spontaneous ones. We already have one amazing trip booked for next spring & are planning another one for the fall. There will be many little trips in-between. But none of them will be this trip, at this time.

Travel is full of ups & downs – the highs seem so high, the lows so low. Just like everything else in life.