Relaxing, vegging out, chilling out, kicking back, being a couch potato; however you want to express yourself regarding how to unwind from life, we all have our own way of doing just that. As I sit here typing while watching "Elf" from my Christmas movie collection, it's clear to me that often relaxing is a very simple process. It's easy to find joy in small, simple activities.
One of the drawbacks of long term and perhaps even short term traveling is that relaxing can be difficult to impossible depending on where you're at geographically. While I was in the United Kingdom, and the language was English, it was easy; I could read the newspaper, watch TV and easily purchase a novel to read. Have you ever heard of the show "Eastenders"? It's a nighttime soap opera about working class people in London. I got totally hooked on that show and I'm still wondering what happened! Truth be told, I did have the closed captioning on (like subtitles) so I could see the words while they spoke. Some of the actors had very thick accents.
Once I got to Europe that all changed. TV is not in English, even CNN is sometimes dubbed over. In Italy the shows on TV are American but they are dubbed over in Italian. Imagine "Murder She Wrote", "Columbo" and even "The Jeffersons" in Italian. Hilarious, yes. Entertaining, yes (for a short time). But not relaxing. On rare occasions in a book store I could find a novel in English for about 15 euro (about 25 dollars or so).
Someone once suggested that I take a bath to relax but most B&B's, Hotels and even homes in the UK and Europe do not have a bathroom large enough for a bath tub. In fact, most shower stalls are so small that if you are unlucky enough to drop something, you have to get out of the shower, turn around, reach inside the stall to retrieve the object. You cannot just bend over to get it. Actually, since the water rarely stays warm very long, showers are not enjoyable either.
It's true that at the end of most days I was so tired from walking that sleep was enough relaxation for me. I did find a way to relax during the day in parks and quiet little areas; sitting in cafes drinking tea or an espresso, sitting on a pew in an ancient church and my all time favorite thing to do while traveling - eavesdropping on other people's conversations. I love listening to people talking with their accents. You can learn a lot about a culture that way. Of course I can't complain too loudly, I was away from work for 2 months, after all. Traveling can be stressful but certainly not as much as work, comparatively. The number one item on my agenda these days, while not getting ready for the holidays, is to relax. Oh, and writing this blog, of course.
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