Not all those who wander are lost
Date published 7 October, 2019
Travelling, or on holiday?
We greatly enjoyed our trip to Majorca. A temperature in the high 20's was just the thing to ease us into Autumn!
There was a snag, however.
The air conditioning in the room became too zealous. It got stuck on what seemed like freezing, and in its attempt to maintain the low temperate it made a lot of noise. Plus it was partly successful, making the room cold.
Sleep was impossible. And although the hotel fixed it the very next day, that night was looking like a write off.
We came up with an eccentric solution. You see that nice balcony? It actually overlooked the sea. But that night we grabbed some cushioned and turned it into a makeshift bed. It was warmer out there, and much quieter. We ended up with quiet a decent sleep under the stars.
I know. We should have made a fuss, and demanded a different room, right then, in the middle of the night.
Actually, it was fun.
It made us muse on the issue of holidays, as opposed to travel.
A holiday is a consumer thing. You pay some money. You go with an expectation of what is going to be there. If it is not as you wished, you complain. We witnessed a fair bit of this from those around us. The food - which was actually pretty good, produced the inevitable complaints from the tourists. Why are there no chips every day? Why do some of the shop owners not speak English?
When you travel, you go to discover what is already there, and whatever that is, you experience it. You learn. You enjoy. You sample the local cuisine. You learn to communicate with new people. You immerse yourself into what is around you.
That may be over simplistic, and I am not suggesting you should all sleep on the balcony on your travels. But I am glad we did, because rather than a spoiled holiday we had a great week bring Mallorca into our travels. Free from battling with the air conditioning, we ate well, swam a lot, got properly warm, and discovered some great little shops.
So I invite us all to travel more, and holiday less.
We are happy snappers!
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