Travel Envy

I was eating breakfast with some friends recently listening to a recount of a trip to Mexico, rice, beans and learning Spanish.  Not paying close enough attention to directions given in a foreign language.  Nodding yes in understanding when you really don’t.  Chatting with well traveled strangers while waiting for the customs line to move even an inch. Then it hits… travel envy.  Something about the stamps, stickers and language barriers of foreign travel gets me every time.

You know you have it bad when listening to a friend’s airport woes and you’re kinda envious.  No I don’t want to be trapped in a security line, only to hear my name over the loud speaker for final boarding call, and have to run to the last gate to barely catch my plane where the air conditioning is promptly shut off and everyone starts coughing.  That sounds terrible, but in some part of my mind still desirable, as far as travel sicknesses go travel envy can range from pretty benign to debilitating.  As far as mine goes it somewhere between a lingering ache and a painful jab.

This fire was fueled even further by a singular moment this week in the office where a client was perusing my travel photo album and asked to purchase one of the photos.  The photo album is more of a conversation piece, but who am I to refuse such a request.  Especially the request of someone who wants to travel vicariously via a photo I took.

At which point I go home to flip through the photo albums on the Lonely Planet or  National Geographic and sigh…