BootsnAll Travel Community

Anyone here ever get homesickness on the road? Ive been on the road now for almost a month and Im here at a hostel were there is a small party going on and for the first time im not joining the party and im just sitting on the internet for now.

I miss home a little bit, I miss the people who I left behind to go for my own ambitions in life. But I know I made the right decisions, and that I am doing the right thing by travelling.

How do you deal with homesicknes?

What I do is i try to think about the reasons why I left in the first place. The original lifestyle and what I´ve learned about the world so far and how much more I have to learn before it is all over. How life is very short and how I have been given an amazing opportunity in life.

Also I like to think about how amazing and awesome I am for doing what I am doing.

Im feeling a bit better, maybe I´ll just take it easy tonight and get some sleep for a change.

By the way I am in Barcelona Spain right now... Night night buddies!

Homesickness is normal. You might miss your family, David Letterman on TV, magazines and newspapers in English, shopping on Sunday (I hate how most things are closed on Sundays in Europe). Here's how I deal with it: I remember that most people back home are jealous of me. I remember that sinking, pit-in-the-stomach feeling on Monday morning. I remember being so tired after a day of work and numbing myself in front of a box, watching other people's lives. I remember that now *I* am living. Other ways: I go to used bookstores and look for classic novels that I had always meant to read. I go to the supermarket and I look for cool foreign (at least to me) products.... In Spain, they have this really good black soap that I love to use ( I forget the name). If my hostel has a kitchen, I cook myself a meal (often homesickness is brought upon by too much unstructured time....cooking brings structure). I try to contact locals through couch-surfing.com, not necessarily for a place to stay, but for a cup of coffee or a beer. I go into churches for morning mass and I light candles for my family and friends. I look into day passes at the local gym. I send letters to friends and family (sorry, email doesn't count here)and at the post office I ask to see what stamps are available. I research my next destination (internet OK here, but bookstores get extra points). I talk to the loners in the hostel.... someone is always waiting for the other person to initiate the conversation and OK, it might as well be me. I ask questions about where they are from/ where they have been and I get good ideas....I guess I just try to make my travels as fun and as glamourous (at least in my mind) and as stimulating as I can. And I truly believe they ARE more glamorous than "Oprah's Big Win" or whatever the latest reality show is.

It will pass. Go see a movie if you have a cinema. Depends on where you are really.

You have internet and you said some people are partying so imagine you are in a place that should have lots of things to keep you busy that aren't travel related.

I think sometimes we get so caught up in having to be in "travel" mode that you forget you can veg out and not do a damn thing for a few days just as if you were at home.

I try to remind myself that it's normal to have these feelings. I sometimes struggle with the occasional feelings of lonliness that come from travelling by myself. It helps now that I expect this to happen. Getting a good nights sleep or meeting up with other travellers often helps. Going to the movies sounds like a great idea to me.

For me, writing helps. There were times when I felt homesick as I backpacked through Europe. I put on some good music and wrote in my journal. Writing can be very therapudic.

I usually try to stick with the crowd (instead of sitting on the sidelines) when I'm feeling homesick. I get caught up in the moment and have a blast and forget what I was missing in the first place.

I've found that being alone or talking to someone from home are the WORST methods for me to deal with being homesick. I just get more miserable!

Meh. Never really have homesickness. But I suggest to just put yourself into the position of having to go to bed now, because you have to get up in the morning to go to the same job that you've been doing the past three years. That should put the homesickness on the back-foot.

quote:

Originally posted by MaxPowers:

How do you deal with homesicknes?

Oddly, I tend to *indulge* it a little bit - think about the people I'm missing, what they are doing, listening to, eating, what the weather is like, so forth and so on.

Then, I think about where I am and what I'm doing, and I write someone at home about something around me..all the goofy little details. I can get a full screen or a couple of pages out of a letter about eating at a noodle shop, or listening to a mariachi band.

For some reason that makes me feel better.

La