Things We Miss After One Year on the Road

Here we are, one year in to our indeterminately-long trip. So we’ve been thinking a lot about the past as well as the future. We couldn’t be happier with how things are going, so none of the below is a complaint. But we are adjusting (and re-adjusting) to a regularly changing set of circumstances. And that always brings friction with it. So – because lots of people have asked – here are the eight things we miss most in our current lifestyle:

• Family and friends: a few of our people have taken advantage of knowing someone in various locations: we’ve had five sets of visitors so far, with several more scheduled! We talk on a regular basis with all kinds of folks, but we do miss seeing our loved ones, and we miss missing special events like birthdays.
• Popcorn: this doesn’t need a lot of explanation. We love popcorn, and it is not available everywhere. We had a very sad experience in Cabo Verde, trying to pop hominy (unsuccessfully; there was an acrid smell for days). As is the way of such things, we mostly only crave this when we can’t find it, and right at the moment we are awash in the stuff. Still, we remember how sad we were not to have any…
• Bathtubs: here as well, it’s not like we take baths on the regular; we’re more the showering type. But sometimes you just want to luxuriate in the bubbles. It’s rare for us to have a flat with one (two of seven so far, and none even in hotels!). Somehow that makes us feel deprived.
• Books (the real kind): we are People of the Book (documentation of our former book ownership here). We’ve adjusted to reading more or less everything on a screen. Still, there’s nothing quite like a physical book, and they are one of the things we miss most. On the other hand we are no longer so rabid about good lighting as we used to be: with every down there’s an up!
• Knowing where to find things: this one we’ve done to ourselves, on purpose — our whole thing is seeking out unfamiliar situations, over and over again. But it is stressful to have to figure out a new set of streets, and stores. And it always takes us a few days to learn where things are in the flat (sometimes we rearrange stuff, to make it more intuitive). We wouldn’t change this, obviously, but on a bad day we find it exhausting.
• Comfy chairs: we aren’t particular, but furniture in rental flats tends not to be of the highest quality. And good-quality chairs are particularly elusive. So we are always looking for coffee shops with comfy chairs — also hard to find, and, of course, not the same as having them in your own place!
• Indian food: this is probably our single favourite kind of food. (Not that we’d ever want to pick just one.) And most good-sized cities have at least one or two places for curry. But it takes a while to find them. Actually, Asian food as a whole is something we wish we had more of, all over the world.
• Bagels: this one is John, mostly, though Laurel too likes them. We have seen various bread items claiming to be bagels, but so far nothing comes close to the real thing. There are supposed to be a few places in Rome that claim to have good bagels, and we’ll check them out. But our hopes are not high!

So there you have it, the things we miss most after a full year of meandering minimally (and homelessly). Not too bad, actually, and perhaps future places will help us find the things we have been missing!