Monday, September 28, 2015

six ways to travel without leaving your hometown

The travel bug has bitten me especially hard this month, and I am itching to go new places, see new sights, walk on new roads and blaze new trails through new forests. However, big extravagant soul-searching excursions simply aren't practical for me right now, (SADNESS) so I've been finding other ways to satisfy my craving.

# 1! - Ride the bus and people-watch

I had to get on the bus the other day after work, which I normally don't enjoy very much because it takes such a very long time to get from the pool back to my house. But when I slid my ticket into the terminal and collected my transfer slip earlier this week, I decided to pretend that I was going somewhere new and exciting. After all, I'd be thrilled to bits at the opportunity to ride the bus through a small town in England - so why should here be any different?


# 2 - Go to a bookstore and wander for as long as you like

Try a bookstore you've never really explored before, and give yourself at least 45 minutes to peruse the shelves, track down the different sections and genres and run your fingers down hundreds of different spines. Find all the children's books you read as a child, look at the glossy photographs in the art section, and smell all the unwritten words and untold stories in the aisle set aside for notebooks and journals. There are so many stories stacked away, awash with colour on the numerous wooden bookshelves - so many new places and people and characters to explore!



# 3 - Read a book of poetry 

Preferably in a coffee shop, after completing #2! (I particularly enjoy Tennyson.)


# 4 - Write a letter!

(a real one. With a stamp and everything.) Write to an old friend or a new one, on nice stationary or plain old lined paper. Write in cursive, if you know how, or your neatest printing if you're a little rusty. (Like me. Technically, I can use "grown-up writing," but it doesn't come very naturally.) Think all the way back to grade four, when you learned how to use a heading and greeting, at least three body paragraphs, and a properly affectionate closing; drag all the old rules out and get fancy!


# 5 - Try an exotic recipe

It's easy to get in food ruts, stuck in a cycle of the same old breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. Try something new this week - look up a recipe from a place you've always wanted to visit and make some of their food for a change! (I'm partial to pad thai, myself...)


# 6 - See the world through new eyes

If you were visiting your own hometown, what would amaze you? It's so easy to forget to look at the people, places and things you see every day; you kind of glaze over after a while, and just see tree, house, road, instead of looking for the details. Which trees on your street are turning orange and red first this year? How many people have started decorating for fall, filling porches and lawns with scarecrows and bales of hay and sometimes even stalks of corn (maybe this is just a Canadian thing?) Whose chalk drawings cover the street in front of their houses - what words did they write today?


How do you stay inspired when the wanderlust bug bites you? Do you ever feel stuck in the same place, or do you love the familiarity of home?

xx,
Olivia

p.s.
(the book photographed is "When Wanderers Cease to Roam; A Traveler's Journal of Staying Put," by Virginia Swift. I've been reading it off and on over the past few weeks - so much gorgeousness. Read immediately.)

8 comments:

  1. These are some wonderful suggestions! I get wanderlust soooo bad, and sometimes a simple walk is enough, but it always comes back.This post is a great reminder to just get out and do something, and to take notice.

    When Wanderers Cease to Roam looks like a great little book -- I'll have to check it out sometime!

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    1. I'm so glad you liked it, Serena!! I have been dying to travel, and these honestly did help to sate the craving of my soul. Haha.

      It is such a wonderful book -- please read it! I'm just at "June" now, which is horribly out of season, but I love it so much I can't even bring myself to mind. :)

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  2. This post is so perfect!! I love your solutions to wanderlust. "and smell all the unwritten words and untold stories in the aisle set aside for notebooks and journals." < THIS SENTENCE. SO BEAUTIFUL. It just gives me warm fuzzies. ♥ And I find myself particularly resonating with #6 -- because I really do live in a gorgeous place, but it often gets to be just ordinary. My parents always try to remind me of how beautiful it is here when we go on drives. Like, "Gosh, look at those mountains! Gorgeous." And they really are. I do travel quite a bit, but home is so deep in the woods of a small town, it's easy to get wanderlust pretty soon after returning from a trip. Haha. But I love the peace of being home.

    love,
    abbiee

    p.s. I think I fixed my blog! FINALLY. *Christmas crackers even though it's not Christmas yet*

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    1. WHY DO YOU WRITE SUCH BEAUTIFUL LONG COMMENTS AND ARE SO NICE. Which doesn't even make sense!! Moving on.

      #6 is definitely the hardest one for me, too, probably because it seems so unglamorous. I'm like, "no! Bring on the new places!" And then some unfortunate practical part of me reminds me that I haven't even traversed all the streets in my own city, and there's a lot of beauty here, too. Darn that wise little voice, amirite?? :p haha.

      P.s. I will ALWAYS take Christmas crackers!! Always.

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  3. Love your tips. And I just ordered When Wanderers Cease to Roam from the library. Can't wait to dig in!

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    1. Thank you so much, Margaret!! I'm so glad you liked them - and I'm THRILLED to hear that you're going to read the Wanderers book! I hope you love it just as much as I do!

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  4. This is my favorite post of like ever! You have the most wonderful ideas, and I'm going to definitely have to try them all. (And the book you featured looks just gorgeous. I want it now.)

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    1. Hannah, thanks so much!! They just kind of occurred to me as I was traipsing around town the past few days, so it's neat to hear that you can relate as well! (I know, right? I want it too.)

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