Feeding Your Travel Bug

It has been over two years since I wrote about the post-travel blues: that feeling of depression, or comedown, that hits once your trip of a lifetime has come to an end. I thought I’d return to the topic today to shed some new insights into post-travel coping strategies. But first, to recap. Among the suggestions in my previous post are: Start working on your next trip; Take a short course; Be a tourist in your home town; Learn the Lingo; and Use the Internet to connect with like-minded travellers.

 Since returning to Australia in March from an eight month trip that took me across America, into Europe and finally to Cambodia, I have continued to feed my travel bug in three major ways:

By turning my best travel photographs into a constantly changing slide show

Like most people who travel today with any type of digital camera, I returned home with literally thousands of images saved to my laptop. Putting some of these to good use, I have created a folder for my favorite photos. These are programmed to change the Desktop image on my computer every 60 seconds. In this way, I am constantly reminded of my trip highlights, and always thinking about my next journey, which as of this post is less than a month away (when I head to Melbourne for a five week house sitting stay).

I have also started posting a daily photo online via my Twitter profile. This forces me to go through my files looking for interesting images to upload, which again serves as an ongoing reminder of the travels I have undertaken, and kept me focussed on the travels still to come.

By treating my return home as just another extended stay in a never ending journey

I figure if Bob Dylan can embark on a ‘Never Ending Tour’, I should be able to embark on a ‘Never Ending Journey’. Therefore, I try not to think in terms of being ‘home’. Instead, I tell myself I am simply paying an extended visit to Adelaide, from which in due course I will move on. So, after returning to Adelaide from Melbourne early in February, 2012, I will once again spend time here before heading to Europe in May, and America in July. And thus the never ending journey rolls on.

This is just a mental mind game, I know, but it works for me, and may well work for you too, so give it a try, and let me know how you get on.

By Writing, Reading, and Researching

It is far too easy to fall into the routine of the daily grind once you return from your travels. I deal with this by maintaining this blog, and by writing guest posts for other blogs. This forces me to remember my trip, and to engage with the wider travel community wherever it may be found.

I also read as many books as I can about the cities and countries I plan to visit. And by books I am not talking only about travel guides. I look for histories, biographies, and novels that will help give me an understanding of the culture and the countries I will be passing through.

Recent titles include Paul Auster’s The Brooklyn Follies; Bill Brysons Life And Time of The Thunderbolt Kid; and The Historical Atlas of New York City by Eric Homberger. Right now I am reading two books, Bloody Crimes (James Swanson), about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and the hunt for Jefferson Davis; and Douglas Brinkley’s The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and The Crusade for America.

Add to these a shelf full of books still waiting to be read covering Venice, the Crusades, the pirate Captain Kidd, and the history behind the gardens at Versailles (to name just a few areas of interest), and you can see how I manage to keep myself occupied when I’m not actually on the road – or online.

Quite frankly, there is almost never a waking hour when I am not thinking in some way about travel: either journey’s I have completed, those about to begin, or still others on the distant horizon. I think it is fair to say, my travel bug is constantly being fed on a steady diet of information, images, and ongoing plans that help keep it full and focussed on the next travel ‘meal’.

Feel free to share your strategies for dealing with the post-travel blues via the Comments section below.

The Reading List 6

Three more websites worth exploring for those readers interested in street photography, and overcoming writer’s block.

Fifty-two weeks on the streets

Phil Coomes, is picture editor the BBC mobile website, and has an interesting piece on street photography, with many examples of the genre that is worth checking out.

Phil writes about an open street photography challenge in which leading photographers issue weekly projects that are open to all interested photographers to participate in. Participating photographers upload their images to Flickr where members of the challenge can view the photographs and comment on the work of others, and recieve comments on their own work.

There are some great images on the site, and whether you choose to join the weekly challenge, or just want to get some ideas or inspiration from the works of others, I highly recommend you take a look for yourself. Read more...

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10 Types of Writers’ Block (and How to Overcome Them)

io9.Com is a website for Sci-Fi enthusiasts, and staff writer, Charlie Jane Anders has put together a great article describing ten types of writer's block with great advice on how to overcome them. Of course, the information is perfect for writers across all styles of writing - including bloggers, which is why it caught my attention and why I'm including information about it here. 

Charlie writes: "Part of why Writer's Block sounds so dreadful and insurmountable is the fact that nobody ever takes it apart. People lump several different types of creative problems into one broad category. In fact, there's no such thing as "Writer's Block," and treating a broad range of creative slowdowns as a single ailment just creates something monolithic and huge. Each type of creative slowdown has a different cause — and thus, a different solution."

Charlie Anders then proceeds to examine the concept of writer's block and pulls it apart to examine its consituent parts to provide a better understanding of the problems and how to deal with them. Read more here...

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Street Photography for the Purist

Street Photography for the Purist is a free 160 page eBook on the art of street photography. Written by Chris Weeks, a professional photographer living in Los Angeles who has made his remarkable insight into street photography available on deviantart.

The ebook was first written and published in 2006 but the information is as relevant and inspiration now as it was then.

All the work in the book is in black and white and it serves as much as a source creative ideas as a training manual describing the art of street photography both as remarkably easy as well as incredibly difficult.

The book features contributions by photographers such as :  Severin Koller, Michael Kaiser, Matthew Craig, Rainer Pawellek, Deborah Delasio, Errol Lyons-Rainey, Darren Abate, Massimiliano Mortillaro, Bernhard Wolf.

Chris has an interesting writing style and is not afraid to express himself - often in quite colorful language, so be prepared for numerous expletives and personal opinions that may make your enjoyment of the book less than fullsome. However, Chris and the other writers impart lots of good ideas and it is well worth persisting with if you are interesting in street photography.

You can download the eBook via Deviant Art...

Thanks to Seven by Five (7x5) for bringing this to our attention.