Dreaming of Travel

In general I think I've adjusted quite well to 'civilian life.' Being off the canvass has given me the time and leisure to explore hobbies, books and places that I never had the luxury for before. Today I biked to the grocery store and picked up ingredients to make french toast. I laid out on the grass and a read a book. And I just woke up from my beer-induced mid-adfternoon nap. (I think the free Sam Adams brewery tour might become a Saturday staple.) As I woke, this poem came into my head:

In winter I get up at night And dress by yellow candle-light. In summer quite the other way, I have to go to bed by day.

-Robert Lewis Stevenson

It's hard to say how much A Child's Garden of Verses influenced me as a child. I couldn't recite any of the poems now like I can nursery rhymes, but reading them now, they all come back vividly, and with the pictures that accompanied them in my book.

I think the book stayed with me mainly because I remember the tattered copy my mom gave me, saying, "This was my favorite book growing up." I took that seriously.

I realize today that the simple child wonderment at everyday simple things in the world is something I try to capture everyday and something that travel gives you. One of the things I lvoe most about traveling is the pure joy you get from doing everyday things in a foreign place: taking the train, speaking to a friend, going grocery shopping, even taking a shower. Everything is new and different.

I find myself able to reclaim that feeling at will now, the feeling of wonder as the season turns, noticing the arcitectural details that lie above my normal line of vision when I walk to work, turning down a different street than I normally would take to the grocery store.

I find myself staring at the big poster of the coast of France across from my bed.

Is travel my drug?

Some of R.L. Stevenson's dreaming of travel poems:

Foreign Lands

Pirate Story

The Land of Nod

Travel

20 Tips

Well actually not 20.  Just one--but I made number 2! 

What am I talking about?  If you're a reader of Budget Travel magazine, you no doubt laugh at the funny top 20 tips from readers each month.  Most of them are hilarious little strange things that middle-aged travelers do to make themselves more comfortable while on the road -- like bringing hooks with you when you travel in case your hotel room doesn't have anywhere to hang your towel or save shower caps from hotels to put over your bike helmet when it rains.  Every once in a while you get a gem.  Mine was one of those gems.  

I'm tip number 2 this month in Budget Travel magazine!  Grab it on newstands or check it out online.  

For getting my tip featured I get a year's subscription to Budget Travel--not bad.  

What's my tip you ask?  

"2. Vacation education Anytime I plan a trip, I subscribe to blog feeds and news from the area I'm visiting. It helps me catch up on the culture and gets me even more excited about what's to come! Megan Stokes, Boston, Mass."

Here's a little how to do this.  

*Go to reader.google.com. 

*Sign in with your gmail account (or get one).

*Click on the add a subscription button and type in keywords like "Mexico" "Budget Travel" "Lativian News" or "Boston Art."  
*Visit the website whenever you want and new blog entries will show up in one convenient place to read them all.

If you sign up--let me know!  I really want to get some more folks on Google Reader.  There's a 'bookmark with comment' function that I love.  You can then follow your friend's articles that they like and comment on.  Pretty neat and a much better way to share interesting stuff than forwarding.  Check out the little box to the right that says "Megan's shared items," it's a sampled of my bookmarked articles from Google Reader.