Well, after more than a week of sitting still, sleeping still, and just still being, I am back on the road. Actually quite literally, seeing as I’m writing this blog post from a bus with wifi.
Greyhound isn’t all that bad these days, for your information. It occurs to me that it wouldn’t be as awful in 2011 to win one of those prizes on Wheel of Fortune where you get sent to some family caravan park up the coast courtesy of Greyhound.
Anyway, where was I? Oh, yes, on my way to Boston after hanging out in New York for a while. My time in the big apple made me feel a bit like a big lemon, to be honest. I did very little and, although there were lots of friends in town, I also took the time to spend precious hours with myself.
It’s been almost four months since I left Australia and I think I was starting to get a little drained.
It hasn’t been the hardest of travels so far – no climbs up snow-covered peaks without a Sherpa, no treks through never-ending deserts, or swims across piranha-infested rivers. It’s more been the constant travel, the constant stress of having to always find somewhere new to stay, and the constant living out of a suitcase.
It takes a toll on you mentally and I think it was important to stop in New York for a while and recuperate. For the first time in quite a while I cooked my own meals in a kitchen, went for long walks to get some exercise and slept every morning until I woke up on my own accord.
I’ve almost forgotten what my phone’s alarm clock sounds like (but, being an ancient Nokia, I’m pretty sure it sounds like the theme song to a 1980s Donkey Kong video game).
The only problem with stopping is that you fall into a bit of a rut, slumped in a gutter of emotional fatigue that’s hard to crawl out from.
There were times when I didn’t really have the motivation to get moving again.
It’s not that I didn’t still have a huge list of places I wanted to go and was excited about going to them. It was more that each day began to blur into the next and there was no particular reason to choose a particular day to get back on the road (even the maniacal woman on the subway informing us that the end of the world was nigh wasn’t enough).
Until, one day, I just made the decision to check out Boston. Already, I’m glad to be moving again.
It’s nice to have the anticipation of exploring a city I’ve never been to before, it’s nice to chat to other travellers on the bus, and it’s nice to be away from that crazy woman and her soothsaying! It’s not quite my favourite transportation – (which, incidentally, is train travel) – but it’s a good feeling, regardless.
There’s a lot of this country to discover and I’ve got about another month here before I think I’ll leave. So stay tuned – there’ll be lots of wacky tales from middle America coming on the blog soon.
