Appreciating Home
 

As the traveler who has once been from home is wiser than he who has never left his own doorstep, so a knowledge of one other culture should sharpen our ability...to appreciate more lovingly our own.
Margaret Mead

I love this ! It sums it all up so well.

Does traveling make you appreciate home even more? Or does it make you long to go away again?

A little bit of both, actually. It often makes me want to see more more more of the big world out there. But I also love getting back to my own comfy surroundings and the good 'ole USA.

Every time I go back from vacation I sing (inside) the song I heard in Russia: "it's so good this happiness exists - the road back home" Some day I'll get home :)

I feel both ways--I want to travel more but I also appreciate certain things about where I live. When I recently returned from London, I couldn't wait to have an ICE cold diet coke and iced tea! I also appreciated that the place I live is much less crowded and easier to get around. After experiencing the tube/bus overcrowding, I really don't have an excuse for being late here at home!:)

Of course, spending time in London made me long to travel to other places in Europe and the rest of the world. Everytime I go on a trip, I think of how I would feel if I lived in that particular place and also start planning my next vacation.

Great thread Scarlett.

Well stated Lee4. Traveling gives me great appreciation for other places and makes me realize that the way we do things here (for me USA) isn't the only way, nor in many situations is it the best way. It brings to the forefront the things I like about my home and makes me wish that somethings were more like the places I visit.

And of course traveling makes me anticipate my next trip because I can't wait to see more of the world.

Thank you for the responses, maybe Friday will bring more?
((F))

Being from Ireland, travelling abroad (usually mainland Europe) only makes me appreciate how expensive this place is. Also makes me realise how rude and arrogant we've become in the last 10yrs or so. Maybe I wear rose tinted glasses when abroad but I'm not alone in feeling this way.

My husband and I love traveling and enjoy our time in other places, but we always agree that it's nice to come home, as well.

We live on a very small island, and everyone (including the immigration department) hugs us and welcomes us back, which is always nice. And, it's always great to crawl back into my own comfy bed and enjoy my familiar surroundings. However, it's never long before we start getting the itch to go again and start planning for another adventure.

I think that you must have a nice balance of home and away. And, I agree that the "traveler who has once been from home is wiser than he who has never left his own doorstep." Look at what all we learn from travel.

I'm from England and I think we have become very self focused, arrogant and selfish. Thats my personal opinion, and when I get rudeness and ignorance from others, usually impoliteness (maybe I was raised TOO well on that score), I get more and more angry about it. Americans seem more polite, always saying excuse me, can I help etc. Maybe we only see the good side though, as we visit tourist orientated places in the states.

However, I always feel there is nothing like your own bed to return to, familiar and comfy, and the familiarity of home - driving on the CORRECT side ;) and the lush countryside, to name a few. I think we are blessed indeed, with 'a green and pleasant land'. Pity the citizens can sometimes let the place down. I'm in a cynical mood today :(

Travel simultaneously frees my spirit as it reminds me that I was born in the wrong time and place. Travel is the drug that helps me endure daily routine and home for me is not the physical space where my body rests. I think I was a suitcase in a past life.

What a great way to sum it up, Sneeky.

When I get back home from a holiday, I usually can't wait to go away again...

The only things that make me want to go back at some stage are:
1.The thought of sleeping in MY bed
2.The food here in Italy!
3.The coffee

Anything else I can and will do gladly without...living in Venice is such a difficult affair, sometimes I don't know if I like it or not. A large part of the Venetians turn me off, with their dialect and their manners...
I felt the worst when I got back from Australia and New Zealand. The latter especially felt like my real home, even though I had never been there before. The people are so different from what I'm used to... I felt really miserable when I got back to Venice after 2 and 1/2 months down there.

(Yes, I'm in a cynical mood too :( )

Sigh!

Federico
Venice,IT

We love to travel - see great places, meet new people.... but I always feel so tired when I get home. And I do love my home. I was sharing this with a friend - claiming I would never travel again. They said one of the key purposes of travel is to love your home even more.... so off we go to Spain for Thanksgiving and Venice for Christmas....

Although Venice is a beautiful place, on my one visit it made me feel cynical too. My young daughter bought a postcard, and the seller tried to cheat her of 20 cents. She caught him, though. But, I thought that was rather cruel. I don't think I will return because of that one little thing.

Sneeky, I like the way you think!

I too love traveling, enjoy returning to the comfort of my home, and within days am dreaming of my next trip. When things get hectic at work, I tell my co-wokers "I don't belong here; I belong at an airport somewhere, on my way somewhere else!"

Try being a tourist in your own hometown! I recently bought a new camera and decided to take it out for a spin in my neighborhood. Lo and behold I noticed beautiful and interesting things that I had taken for granted all this time, walking by with hardly a notice. While everything while on vacation is noticed and appreciated, we don't do this at home often enough - it's amazing how a little box made of plastic, metal and glass can change your viewpoint!

If anything, traveling has helped me realize how many things I don't like about home (as in the USA). You grow up with all these notions that everything in the States is better, but you find out that isn't the case. I've found Europe, in general, to be a much more open-minded, free and liberal place.

When we have visitors we aften become tourists in Chester, taking them on an open-top bus trip etc.
I'd echo the sleeping in my own bed bit too. I go to Italy every year but last time when we returned, as we flew over England all the hedges below were masses of white blossom. A bit later in the year the road from the airport has hedges full of wild roses.
Great Britain is certainly a beautiful island.

I really like this topic and wanted to share a little more. Several posters mentioned how traveling helps you to see that your way is not always the "best" way or the only way to do things. I certainly agree with that! I tend to be very set in my ways, so traveling helps me to get out of that a bit. Although I got a little tired of the overcrowded tube in London, I did like the fact that you can get places there without a car. Where I live, you really need a car or you're not going anywhere.

After returning from some of my trips, I've had other ask if I was "afraid" of being in a large city and riding subways (NYC, London, DC). I always say "no" and explain that it wasn't that difficult. I think a lot of us are afraid of what we don't know (I am often this way in my own life), so the travel experience helps us to try new and different things. And, as many have said, it's nice to come home to my own comfy bed!!

Some wonderful thoughts and different points of view here--which is one of the several aspects I love about travelling--helps you gain different perspectives.

When it's summer and the weather is wonderful here (Seattle area)and I can get out and truly appreciate it, there isn't another place in the world I'd want to be. But when the rains come, I want to be travelling again--especially to Spain lately. Love learning about other places and experiencing "other ways of being"...the planning is almost as much fun as the going, as is the sharing.