Post travel blues

Why I Get The Post Travel Blues

Most people will say that you do not remember the pain of childbirth and keep talking about it over and over.  Maybe it is because after the pain there is the joy of holding your child.  Not so with the pain from a bad travel experience, especially one where you arrived home sick.  I told two friends who told two friends and so on and so on and so on (maybe you remember the 80’s Faberge commercial?)

Our vacation cost calculations have generally not included the cost of medicine while away or treatment when we returned.  This experience will certainly have us considering travel medical insurance more seriously in the future, however, we will read the fine print to see how sick you really need to be before you can pull the “there is no place like home” button.

Back at home, we start the post travel blues when we begin reversing the packing regimen.  Clothes come out of the suitcase and go right into the laundry.  Sunscreen, sunhats and sandals go into the summer box, since February is still too far away from warm weather in Toronto.  Suitcases are aired out and the dive gear gets put back in storage.  The camera gets downloaded so that David can spend hours turning 200 pictures into 400 that we will probably never look at again.  Of course, when I get my hand on my copy of the pictures, the 300+ pictures of me will quickly be pared down.

As a regular travel reviewer, David has already began his online commentary on all parts of our trip – the tour company, the beach, snorkeling the coral reef and the customs process.  He can’t comment on scuba diving since our planned trip got cancelled when I got sick.  There will be no commentary on the day trips, since those too never happened.  He is exercising the “sleep on it” rule before writing about the hotel and our experiences.  The only thing he has done was to document the medical care received in Cuba in preparation for our visit to our family doctor.  This was a real cause of post travel blues!

Once all vestiges of our travel has been put away and only the fading tan remains, we get a little depressed about no longer being warm and on vacation.  The post travel blues will remain until we get planning for our next trip.  But this one will live on in the re-telling for some time yet.

What gives you post travel blues when you return from vacation?