After my return, my feet still don't touch the ground for weeks. Then there is reviewing my journal and looking at all of the photos. Time to plan another one. How about for you?

Hi Peg - <BR> <BR>I'm actually almost the opposite. I get the blues when I come home. The longer I spend in Germany, the longer it takes me to recover. It only gets better when I figure out how and when I can go back.

I cry when I get on the airplane to come home. I still feel like I'm "there" for only about one day. Then it's back to the old routine (and moochin' around the travel forum).

Hi, <BR> <BR>i have a strange answer. i belive that I'm a xenophope in denial. All i think about is "where can I go next" i get very caught up in researching destinations, reading everyone's opions, looking at pictures and i can't wait to go! But then once I get there, even though it's GREAT, I start to panic and count the days until I go home (while still enjoying the fact that i'm in whatever wonderful place i'm in, and having a good time)Once I do get home I long to be back!!! I get my pictures developed immediatly and look at them, wishing i was still on vacation. that goes on for a week or two then i'm back to "where to now???" i can't win. <BR> <BR>Steph <BR>Steph

Until I get into my plane seat for the return trip...sigh*

My response requires a simple answer. From one trip to the next. <BR> <BR>Rita

I'm like Stacey; I almost always get the post-vacation blues, especially returning from Europe. What I always miss most upon returning to Seattle is the vibrancy of the street life in European cities. I also miss the beautiful older architecture in European cities. Seattle, by contrast -- like so many American cities -- seems to relentlessly tear down beautiful older buildings to put up yet another office tower or condominium building. <BR> <BR>

My vacation high usually lasts for about a month...I love it!!! What I thought were interesting were Capo's comments about how it was depressing returning to Seattle...I am actually looking forward to a short Seattle weekend in July...one mans homecoming is anothers vacation! (p.s. Capo...any Seattle tips wink wink)

Don't get me wrong, Eva; Seattle's not a horrible city (well, there is the relentless rain from October to May, but you'll be here in one of the few dry months. :~) <BR> <BR>It has a spectacular natural setting -- an isthmus nestled between a bay and a 26-mile long lake, between two mountain ranges (the Cascades & Olympics), with Mt. Rainier hovering in the distance -- but, IMO, what people have designed and created here -- the urban environment -- can't hold a candle to what people has designed and created in the European cities I've visited. <BR> <BR>Please feel free to email me if you have any specific questions I may be able to help you with. <BR> <BR> <BR>

My "high" lasts until I get out of the cab at the airport for the trip home. After that, I'm inconsolable for days. My first trip to the local supermarket sends me into utter despair.

I'm new to this so I hope I'm not committing a web-sin by saying I just stay high forever. One of the reasons I like travel chat sites is because I get to re-live vicariously the kick of visiting, say, Fiesole or Niagara Falls, for the first time by sharing with somebody else the one little thing that made the place special for you. And, similarly when I read the excitement in the postings of others about their favourite spots, I get intrigued about going there, too. But the best part is sitting across from a travel buddy years later ( and I do mean years) and saying "remember that time...?Travel memories last forever and, like an acid trip, the flashbacks can be vivid.

I'm like Stacey and Ess, where I cry on the plane home .... and then I'm depressed for about a month. After that, the depression goes underground, and only resurfaces when I see photos, see film clips, or hear first-hand reports from others on their EuroVacations. Then I start to get weepy. <BR> <BR>I've been in a bad funk this year for the past several weeks, because I am not scheduled to go to Europe this year.

I don't get depressed after a trip, but I must confess that both the anticipation and the after-glow have changed somewhat over the years. It is now essentially mandatory to stack travel plans so that there is never a time when I come home from one trip without another to immediately begin looking forward to at that point. They don't all have to be to another continent, but there must be SOMETHING always in the hopper. When I finally cash it all in the end of the line and take my "last journey" -- (a number of decades from now, I would hope) -- I suspect there will still be a non-refundable ticket in my drawer to a place that I was still planning to visit some months later.

Part of the high for me begins before I leave for Switzerland. I start trying to get myself better conditioned for hikes just as soon as the weather begins to warm. I walk in area parks and trails where there is some good sized hills. Nothing prepares you for the hikes and walks in Switzerland though. <BR> <BR>But that is where the high begins for me also. Anticipation. Then there is the letdown after you return home. In Switzerland I can step out on my terrace and see some sparkling glacier off in the distance. <BR> <BR>There are no glaciers in my backyad here. <BR>Not yet anyway, but who knows, maybe in a few thousand years, there might be? ;-) <BR>

Totally on the same page as Jim Rosenberg. Another trip has to be waiting in the hopper, to be researched, planned and dreamed about. Doesn't need to be a biggie - for instance my next one is Ottawa Tulip Festival - only for a weekend.

Boy, I agree with those who say that they have to have another trip to look forward to. On the plane home, I am already planning my next move. So many places and so little time...

Hi, I kind of agree with Jim. I revisit my high (sort of) everytime I take my photo albuims, slides or Videos out, and I must have an idea of where I'll be going next. <BR>

Peg, My trip high never really goes away, and I think I finally figured out why. We don't leave for Turkey for a month, but I've been researching and planning it for a good 6 months. I'm already thinking about my next trip that I want to take with my kids, and I haven't even left for the one I've finished planning! So the high lasts as long as I'm planning dreaming reading, talking or actually doing some travel. Lucky me I don't even have to BE somewhere to be excited about it. As long as I get to travel or look forward to my next travel adventure, I' off the ground.

One more agreement here. <BR> <BR>I'm usually high for a few months BEFORE the trip while planning and list-making and then get a little sad after returning. <BR> <BR>So, like Jim, there needs to be something always in the works. Even if it's for a trip a year later and not just a few months, I have to know that I'm going somewhere else and I just have to start x-ing out the days again. <BR> <BR>And sometimes, I'm lucky when a deal pops up and we end up going elsewhere sooner! <BR> <BR>Lynn <BR> <BR

I'm with you there! And there is nothing quite like getting a timely "bump" on the way home, finding an incredible coupon or getting a pile of bonus miles to help out with the pesky financial realities inherent in all of this. Happiness is having a big leg up on getting the next awesome travel deal, finding it and pulling the trigger!