Bridget McNulty

The Travelling Life

// October 15th, 2009 // Life (and the living of it), travelling

You know, I was pretty sure I was going to get sick of traveling. That might be a foolish thing to be sure of when you’re on a nine month journey, but I’ve always been such a homebody that I thought the allure would wear off. I was wrong.

So far, so good. We’re 6 weeks in and going strong, with not a hint of travel weariness or being sick of living out of a suitcase or being in a different bed every second night. Both Mark and I have become champions at sleeping in strange beds (hard, soft, long, short, small, massive, pillowy, bricklike) and apart from the odd sleepless night, we appear to be doing well. It’s not only about the beds, though (obviously). It’s about the whole malarkey – the finding out how to get from one place to another, finding a place to stay when you get there, making sure it’s the right kind of place (and within your budget), finding somewhere to eat, taking in the sights, and sometimes, every so often, finding a spot to chill out. I think if we were hardcore tourists, it would be completely exhausting. But we are, for the most part, quite laidback when it comes to traveling.

We’re doing it for such a long time, you see. And I think this is what I’ve learnt, so far: that traveling is a lot like real life. You have days that are hard work and admin, days that you have piles of paperwork to plough through (especially when you’re documenting it as thoroughly as we are!), days when you don’t feel so good and you just want to take it easy, and days when you really just need to chill. The beauty of traveling, as opposed to real life (apart from seeing amazing things and experiencing new cultures, of course) is that it’s easier to be good to yourself. There’s no point in pushing through, no reward from a boss at the end of the road if you get all stressed out and work yourself into the ground. And I think that’s what I’m really enjoying about it… The immediacy. It is all about right here right now. What do you want to do today? How do you feel? What do you hope to get out of the day? Okay, let’s work with that.

It’s something I hope to carry home with me, along with my already-battered suitcase and my taste for lime and black pepper (which I picked up fairly recently, in Cambodia!)

If you’re looking for more up-to-the-minute updates about our travels, videos, photos and video blogs, visit us at Sweet Life – www.justtheplanet.com/sweet-life

In the meantime, aren’t you tempted to take a travel day? A day where you do what you feel like doing, right here, right now?