Weekly Letter: To Travel

Talking to a woman from Edinburgh on the train from Berlin to Prague, she was retired and traveling around on a holiday. She was going to go to Prague to find things to sketch and paint with watercolors. I got to see some of her work on the train and we started sharing different artists we follow on Instagram. We also talked about the different places we’ve been. She said people in the US have an amazing opportunity to see so many different types of landscapes and locations without leaving their own country. In Europe, people have to travel to other countries to see the different topographies and in the US, we don’t. In Europe, a 4-hour trip took me from Berlin, Germany to Prague, Czechia. In the states, a 4 hour drive wouldn’t get me out of the adjoining state (if I started driving any direction from Bloomington).

And while I like being gone, there is nothing sweeter than coming home. Sleeping in my bed, knowing where all my things go, doing laundry and cooking my own food. My appreciation for where I live and who I am surrounded by is refreshed after a trip. People make fun of Illinois and how flat it is, but it really is a beautiful place to live. We have the opportunity to see the sunrise and sunset over the plains with the mist coming off the crops. We have beautiful colors coming through the trees this time of year. We have all the seasons to enjoy. Yes, our area is quirky, but so is everywhere else and I think it’s so easy to forget that here we have quite a bit of space, we have beauty and we have options other places don’t.

My favorite part of traveling is always creating context of a place. Understanding the landscape, the smell of a place, what the food is like, it’s size or makeup. To feel the overall energy-even if the place isn’t my favorite spot I’ve ever been, I always appreciate going there. I always find things I enjoy and getting a sense of what make that place special.

My least favorite part is the actual process of traveling. Someone once said, ‘people don’t like traveling, they like getting to their destination.’ And I find so much truth to that. Jamming myself into a seat to sleep for 8 hours isn’t my ideal, but I do it. In fact, I don’t ever sleep that great on any vacation. I like my bed. But I don’t travel for the comfy bed, I travel for what I said above. I want to get to know a place and the people better. To me, adding these layers of context make the world a little more cozy and life a little more interesting. Plus, all the food. 😊

~Carmen