Finding My Fix: Chronicles of a Travel Junkie

It has been more than 3 years since I last updated these chronicles, and I broke a few promises about stories I meant to tell and photos I meant to share.  But, man oh man do I have news that hopefully will make up for all of those broken promises.  Naturally, because I have a Masters thesis I need to be writing, I am instead visiting these records of my old escapades.  It is essential that instead of writing for my thesis I inform you that I am engaged.  Yes, I am engaged.  The travel junkie is settling… sort of.

It likely won’t come as any surprise that the wonderful, egalitarian man I am engaged to does not share my citizenship.  I have even mentioned him in this blog in the past.  I met him during my 3.5 month trip through Europe, Morocco and Turkey in 2006.

I find this pretty amusing (as well as exciting, nerve wracking and wonderful).  Why?  Let me give you the story…

On May 16, 2006, while on a plane from Zurich to Barcelona, I wrote in my journal (Yes, I filled 2 journals while traveling in Europe in addition to this travel blog):

…I was feeling stressed, bummed, overwhelmed on my flight to Zurich, but as soon as I arrived, I felt a million times better and began wondering about my future.  Where to live, what to do.  I don’t want to travel as much anymore in all honesty.  I want to take short trips and settle in one place from which I take those trips… Right now, I want a whirlwind romance with a hot European boy.  And I want to eventually fall in love with a European and move to Europe (or else move to Europe and fall in love/not fall in love but just have fun with a European boy). This summer will decide that–that is the change that will occur.  That is the crossroads, the meaning, the goal of this summer.  We shall wait and see.  In the meantime, I plan to do laundry, take a shower and a nap…

(Maybe I’m psychic or do I just follow my dreams…?)

So in August of that same year, I visited Camilla in Denmark and met a few nice Danish men (who hit on me in their subtle Scandinavian way, so subtle that I couldn’t tell they were hitting on me at the time).  I got the email address of one of them, and we kept in touch for a while.  In the fall, I asked him for his friend Michael’s email.  Michael had been the most friendly and willing to speak English of those Danish men.  His friend should never have given me Michael’s email ;).

Michael has since told me he thought I was very weird at first since I was always available online while I was supposed to be working (He didn’t know I was chatting with more people than just him, or that I am a typing whiz).  The following August, Michael came to the US and, of course no trip to the US is complete without a visit with the travel junkie.  We had our first “date,” and on the day we parted, we didn’t think we’d ever see each other again (or at least he didn’t think so…).  In Slovenia, he was the one who called me.  A while later, I admitted to him that I had come to like him and discovered he felt the same way.  I traveled to Denmark in December and we’ve been together (while apart) ever since.  SAS should really thank us, since we have single-handedly supplied them with at least $10,000 in profits.

Three years of quad-annual pond-hops, daily skype dates and spontaneous emotional breakdowns later, we have decided it’s not enough, we want to live together and be together.  He will be moving to the US in 2012, and who knows where we will wind up in the end.

Six years ago, I set off in search of the home I never had, and I have found it in him and the friends and family, old and new, who have stuck with me through this journey.  I can’t wait for our next adventure.

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Monday, January 17th, 2011 at 1:07 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.