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.

This thread is so timely for me. We have just returned from "too much travel". I really didn't think it was possible, but after 2 trips in 3 months, being away for 7 out of 12 weeks, we are soooooo happy to be home.

For me, the best is sleeping in my own bed, not constantly overeating because the food is so delicious, and most of all, having my 2 wonderful kitties with me.

I'm sure within 2 months I'll be hot to trot again.

Scarlett, I like a question that has so many ways of looking at it that it's like peeling the skin off an onion.

"Does travelling make you appreciate home even more?" Yes! I don't like those small refidgerators and washers and dryers that Europeans use. Some things are just better super-sized! Everything else European is fine and dandy with me.

"Or does it make you long to go away again?" I sometimes come home from a trip vaguely dissatisfied. Home seems so...ordinary and boring. It usually takes me a day or two to settle down and fall back in love with home. Because I do love home.

And then, when I feel the need to appreciate home, knowing that familiarity breeds contempt, I angle for a trip somewhere (away from home)!

No matter where I go in the world, the drive home from the Bay Area to Gualala on Highway 1 always reminds me that I live in the most beautiful place in the world.

EnglishOne, I just wanted to let you know we found very friendly, polite people everywhere we went when we were in London two weeks ago. Believe me, there are plenty of rude Americans here at home!

gualalalisa, I live in west Marin, and I have the same thought every time I take the airporter from SFO to Larkspur. We come over the GG Bridge, up the hill looking down on the bay, Sausalito, Tiburon, and I think how lucky I am to live in one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Last week the evening fog was pouring over the hills from the coast in wispy streams -- like a Chinese landscape painting.

My life at home tends to pretty routine so that is one reason I love to travel, but it is also one reason I love to come home. You know where you are, and it fits like a glove--or an old comfy shoe.

But travel is so mind expanding. I read a lot and it's so much fun to actually see the places I have read about. Sometimes the pictures in my mind are accurate, and sometimes I am wildly off. I like weekend jaunts around Kentucky; I like short trips to surrounding states; I like long trips to other parts of the U.S.; I like to find warm weather in February; but most of all I like going abroad. Nothing is more exciting than getting on that plane to somewhere I have never been before or somewhere I have been that I have fallen in love with. My husband doesn't share my enthusiasm so much, but my daughter does. I trained her well.

I always tell my kids, the best part about travelling is coming home.

Interesting question, since I have been thinking about it for a few months. We have traveled extensively throughout our 40 years together, and I never thought I would get enough. Last year I got enough--at least for a while! I finally just wanted to stay home. Last summer we went to Italy, where I had never been. I was scared to death to go, because I kept thinking, "What if I love it so much that I don't want to come home"? Especially after reading this board for months before we went. It seems that so many people don't really live between their trips there, and only count the days till their next trip. Well, we had a fabulous time, the trip of a lifetime. BUT, it made me really appreciate home, and all we have here. We, too, live in the SF Bay area. Ever since we got home I look across the hills, and can imagine that I could just as easily be in Tuscany. We live in a very diverse area, so within minutes of our home, every kind of food is available----to say nothing of the fabulous wines, and products from all over the world. And we can be sitting on the beach within half an hour of our home, having a glass of wine, eating crab, and watching the boats. I want to visit Italy again, but I will definitely be enjoying my time at home, too!

Thanks, Scarlett, for starting a wonderful thread!

For me, taking a trip is not just mind-expanding but also emotionally a time to fall in love. When I went to Prague, I fell in love with Prague. When I went to Alaska, I fell in love with Wrangell. Every time I return to Vancouver BC or Paris, I fall in love with those cities all over again.

And, of course, it's not just the places, it's also the people - the funny ones, the sad ones, the helpful ones, the not-so-helpful ones - we all have a special place in our hearts where we tuck away those people memories...

BUT

AFter all the exhilerating mind-bending and heart-touching experiences, the best part is coming home and, short of making this sound like a commercial for the SF Bay Area, here's another vote [along with gualalalisa, Marilyn, and chicgeek's votes] for this - one of the most beautiful places on earth to live!

I love the good weather we have, the abundant fruits and vegetables, the gorgeous blue skies, the diversity of the peoples and, last but not least, my large comfy bed.

Now, if only I could get rid of those pesky weeds before my next trip...

I can definately relate to Sneeky...I was born to travel and for me it is like living in a fantasy world while I am gone...Live the culture, eat the food, see the sights, drink the drinks, where nobody knows me and then when I get home, all I do is dream where I will go next...But I do love my bed when I get home, and it is nice to be home, until reality sets in and you get to go back to work, and pay the bills, and figure out that you spent too much on your last vacation, then watch the materialistic neighbours who think that Thailand is a city......Then on to the internet I go, planning our next adventure...But for some strange reason, when we land at home (Canada), we always say "it's nice to be home"...And I think mainly because it is so quiet and clean where we live....

Bathrooms! Bathrooms! Bathrooms! Bathrooms!!!!
We have the best in North America!!!!! I miss a good shower and a bathtub!!! In Europe, I get so pissed off with that stupid hose that they use to shower. It has a mind of its own and gets water all over the floor. Plus the towels in Europe stink! That being said, I'll put up with this daily inconvenience just to be in Europe. But our bathrooms or washrooms(for our Canadian friends) are the bests in the world!!!!