revelations on travelling
[Three days back from my trip in the Netherlands to visit my friend who's on exchange in Leiden. I blinked and it was already over.]
I knew when I planned it that the trip would be short, six days counting the flights. I spent longer anticipating it than living it; I spent more time in its future than in its present. For me, no matter how hard I try to avoid it, it always happens like this. When the anticipated event is over, I immediately long for it back. I'm left perpetually insatiated.
This is not to undermine the mark this trip left on me. I travelled more this year than in most previous ones, and it only made me want to do it more. The way it leaves me with both hope and longing, which arguably are much the same, captivates me, and these feelings don't seem to get old.
What I long for: The slim, eclectic houses. Fewer cars and more pedestrians and cyclists. Reading at cafés on narrow streets in the morning while my friend finished her coursework. Overhearing passerbys speaking Dutch, which I didn't understand apart from the bits of English. The French bakery on the corner of her temporary apartment, where I would get baguette sandwiches and éclairs au café. Sipping an Aperol Spritz and playing cards on a restaurant terrace. Evening walk in the park, two herons flying overhead, the sky turning pink.