Why do I travel? Well, why not? Traveling is different for each individual—some travel to get away, others for business, and yet others to visit family and friends. In addition, we may travel for food or entertainment. However, all of these examples are perfect excuses to hit the roads and skies and explore this beautiful world. However, while the average traveler may get his wanderlust from the simple act of traveling, there is something deeper I’m after.
I searched for quite some time to find the right word to describe the emotion and feeling I was searching to experience. Finally, my search brought me to an old English word that perfectly summed up the feeling I was trying to convey. Fernweh (adj.); It comes from fern (meaning “far”) and weh (defined as “pain,” “misery,” or “woe”). Fernweh, then, is “far sickness” or a “longing for far-off places,” especially those you’ve not yet visited.
Some early pictures from back when I had an actual camera
I took the above picture in San Guillermo, Guanajuato. Just over 4 hours northeast of Mexico City. As you can see, the health department wasn’t on duty in this part of the world, so sanitation wasn’t in good working order. In case you haven’t guessed, if you said “the bathroom,” you are correct. These are just a few examples of very different and unusual things and practices compared to what we experience in the states. Check out the image gallery for more pictures from rural Mexico.
The point is that though some things were uncomfortable and different, they were terrific also. That sense of being totally out of my element, to take albeit small but genuine risk every time I took a sip of water or placed a morsel of food in my mouth. That’s living, and that’s what I’m after. One week from tomorrow, I’m getting on a plane and chasing it yet again. This time to Central Vietnam. My first trip to Asia, and the farthest from home I’ll have ever been in both distance and culture. Here’s to you, Fernweh! Don’t let me down.
***UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2021***
Wow. The above words are valid, exceptional, and a bit of what is in the core of my soul. However, I could not have known that when I wrote this article almost three years ago, what lay ahead was far greater than any plan I had laid out before me. Since this, my first, short, inconsequential post I published on January 16th, 2019, a life many can’t experience across a lifetime has unfolded. I only was hoping to scrape a few trips to write about, hone my writing skills. Maybe put some recipes I’ve created over the years. But what happened was far more than I could have ever imagined.
