I've been trying this
grown up relationship thing for a while. No, not as in getting
children and a mortgage and all, but the light version of it. We both
travel lots and are far from conventional, but still: at the prospect
of moving in with the girlfriend this summer, I have started
accumulating lots of crap.
From the 8th red dress to
make up I will never wear to a dozen kitchen appliances and fancy
bowls, and even high quality bed sheets, I have been spending money
like crazy, telling myself that I need all these things now. And you
know what, somehow, I do. I knew in my heart of hearts when I moved
to Belfast that it's time to put down some roots, if only very fine
ones. But mostly, buying lots of stuff means another thing: at the
end of the day, I don't have the money left to plan any multi-week
escapes to other continents.
Because there's a part of
me that wants to run away, not from commitment, not from the girl.
Maybe from myself. Mostly though, it's a running towards something.
2012 was a fairly unsuccessful year in travel for me: with the
exception of three cities, I didn't really love any of the places I
went to, and so I decided that this year, I will only go to place I
really long to go back to, or that my heart really wants to explore.
No more “x could be
nice”. If my heart doesn't give me a “hell yes” when thinking
of a place, I won't go there.
I've been discussing this
with the girl and close friends for the past weeks: in between moving
out of my current place and moving into the next place, I could
travel for a little. Everybody already seemed to know where I would
be going, but I wasn't that sure.
But somehow, the stars
have aligned: weeks of cheap flight offers by good airlines, all the
books I read, all the movies I 've been watching, all the food I've
been eating and all the new people I got in touch with.
I should be lying awake at
night thinking of moving in with a partner for the first time in my
life, but instead I lie awake and think of convenience store rice
balls, neon-coloured shopping malls and train trips where you spend
hours going past green mountains and rice paddies intersected by
wooden houses and twee little vegetable patches.
So, this May, I'm going
back to Japan, and giving South Korea another chance.
Which places keep you up
at night?
