I’m a grounded traveller.
I feel like a bird without wings; a car without an engine; a boat without a sail—you get the picture.
I came back from my last trip 7 months ago, after plans didn’t quite work out the way that I hoped. I wrote about how I was struggling with Reverse Culture Shock. In some ways I still am. I still want to talk about my travels to everybody I meet, but they all stopped listening long ago.
The last few months have been some of the hardest I have had to deal with in an 11 year teaching career. Adapting to working life after a year away has been more difficult than I ever imagined it would be. Teaching takes up more hours of my day than any job should do, and I struggle to find any kind of balance between work and leisure. Every day I read travel articles from people who are making a living from travelling and writing, and I wonder how I can do the same.
To make matters worse Runaway Brit has gone from 3 posts a week, to one every two weeks. I worry that all the hard work that went into building this site is slowly unravelling.
I know that even the shortest trip will rejuvenate me, and I will be able to let go of some of the stress that burdens me. Next week when I get on a plane for a short trip to Romania, I know that I will feel alive again, but until then I am just clinging on.
In order to address my lack of travel I have decided that while I am here in Stockholm I should aim to go away for one weekend every month, or at least every two months. It doesn’t have to be far away; there is much of Sweden that I want to visit and I also have a list of European cities that have been on my list for far too long: Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Brussels, Prague, and Rome for starters.
Exploring Stockholm is also a priority for me. Stockholm is a beautiful city that doesn’t appear on many travel itineraries, but is certainly worth a visit. I hope that I can use Runaway Brit to convince people that, although not a budget destination, Sweden has plenty to offer any traveller.
I hope to redevelop my site over the coming months to address the various different aspects of what is on offer at Runaway Brit: travel advice, travel stories, expat life, teaching, and to provide more of a forum for my photographs. I want to include a feature about restaurants in the places that I visit, starting with an extensive Stockholm restaurant guide. I will also spend some time improving my photography.
I may be grounded right now, but I have plans to get the wind back in my sails before too long 🙂
What are your strategies for dealing with being grounded? Please share any advice you have!
I hope you’ll find, if not adventure, excitement and if not discovery, re-discovery of your career, home, surroundings and share them w/us. I’ve enjoyed your posts NOT because of WHERE you were but because of who you are and how you tell a story.
Maria recently posted..0-40 with Grace
Thank you. It really means a lot to hear you say that! You have put a smile on my face this morning 🙂
I recently moved back to my hometown (which I swore I would never do) because of my husband’s job. I also went through that culture shock of being back and settling down. I did what I think you’re trying to do – planned trips. Weekend getaways really helped because I had the sense of getting away and being in travel mode. I also started looking at my hometown as a tourist destination. It’s not but approaching it like a tourist, I’ve discovered some great things and it’s helped me keep my traveler skills in tact.There’s so much to explore in your area of the world and you’ll be inspired again once you process this settled situation. Read books, listen to radio stations in other countries online, learn a new language, work on your blog. Yeah, I’ve got a few tools that help me in between trips. 🙂 Good luck to you. Just discovered your blog and really enjoying it!
Thanks so much for the comment! I am really pleased to hear that you enjoy reading my blog. I think it’s important to try and be a tourist in your own town, it helps to avoid complacency and boredom. I am also going to try and visit a European city every month after Christmas.