Post-Travelling Blues: A Survival Guide.

So I am officially back home, in my little crevice of Essex, blogging from the comfort of my own bed. Coming home is often the best but, true to form, the hardest part of travelling. I love my home. I am a total homebird. But the thrills and constant adrenaline of travelling and falling in love with a new place and culture is so exciting - and, now that I have discovered that travelling is My Thing, home is tiny bit... anticlimactic.

After 8 months on my feet (with the exception of the odd couple of weeks here and there enjoying home) I am happy to be in my own bed and with my family. A few of my friends are home from university or their own travels and so I am keeping myself busy, but the nagging I Will Be Here For Five Months feeling is ever prevalent.

I know I'm not alone in this feeling, so I thought I'd give this post a 'How To Do With Coming Home After A Long-Ish Time' theme for all your equi-keen travellers out there with my four tips on how to not go crazy. Unless you keep travelling forever of course. (In which case, I am very, very jealous.)

1) Sleep. Duh.

I love my bed. I may be having a love affair with my bed; it's the person/inanimate object I spend the most time with, and truth be told I am currently typing this from my bed. But I am a firm believer that, especially as a cliched teen, your bed is your best friend, and coming home to your own bed after so long sleeping in hotel rooms, apartments you don't know, etc etc, there is no better feeling than sleeping in your own haven. 

Take one or two days to sleep. Put on The Smiths, Lucy Rose, and Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon or whatever takes your fancy and just enjoy Being. You owe yourself a rest, a wind down.

2) Remember Why Your Home is Fabulous

Sunset on the edge of town. Cliched, existential, and absolutely flawless.

I have spent a few days here and there over my coming home period to just remind myself why I love this corner of Essex so much. I have walked through the village and gone to my favourite spots that I loved when I was younger; I took a cider and went and watched the sunset from the nature reserve just outside town, and I stopped rejecting where I was. I am learning to appreciate home as much as the next unknown city. I've been visiting my old haunts with friends, having drinks on the banks in Cambridge; indulging my inner Brit. Proudly.

3) Baking aka The Solution To All World Problems

Homemade jammy dodgers made on my first day back at home. I get stuff done.

For those who read my Tumblr, followed my old lifestyle blogspot, or even remotely know me in real life, will know just how obsessive I am about my cooking and baking. And while I have recently joined the gym (another tip on how to survive home, join a club, class, or local gym to give you structure!) I spend my two days off a week baking and cooking. Jammy dodgers, flowerpot cucpakes, chelsea buns, pithivier...you name it, I have/am planning to make it.

Of course this can be replaced with something just as productive but this is my number one tip for coping with coming home. Equi-yummy as a slice of cake in Berlin...

4) And Finally: Plan For The Next Trip.

Okay so maybe this isn't the best survival tip, but if you're as restless and wanderlust-ing as me, then this is the only way to really enjoy home. To know that you have another destination on the horizon, well, there is no nicer feeling (for me at least). Yesterday I booked a short break in just over a month to Barcelona and a surprise trip - which you will have to stay tuned for... - may be just around the corner.

Home is my favourite place and really is where my heart is, but coming home is the hardest. Maybe it's a Gap Year thing. Maybe it's because I'm in the midst of Responsible Things (driving, job applying, things that show c-c-c-c-commitment), but either way, the next adventure is only a click of a button away. You are never too far from adventure, home-based or otherwise. And that, for me, is the ultimate comfort.