Lost on Earth

Sleep-Walking Towards Repose

This morning the Spouse and I are putting the final touches on our packing and in an hour we'll head to the airport and then off to Spain. We are leaving this miserable, moldy, cold state for warmer weather and more picturesque scenes. Weather.com just informed us that is equally as cold and rainy and miserable in Madrid as it is here. Awesome.

We considered taking wheeled luggage. We probably should take wheeled luggage. We're old now - technically in our "late 20s", which means that, against our will, the days of shabby hostals and dodgy guest houses are over. Still, the thought of wheeled luggage repulses us. We take wheeled luggage on business trips and not because it is more convenient but because it looks better.

True, the backpack is symbolic of that worldwide scourge, the "western traveler", that sandal and khaki cargo shorts-wearing clueless young person who turns up in remote places trying to find parts of the world where they will not see any other western travelers. While I was traveling in Asia I think I managed to avoid being a western traveler most of the time (although there is one incriminating picture of me on a beach on Koh PhiPhi wearing a sun dress and a full backpack).

While we are in Spain we will be something entirely new to me: middle-class leisure traveler. We are staying in hotels and renting an apartment. We will eat at restaurants instead of subsisting on the typical western traveler diet of crusty, impossibly fresh bread and stinky cheese. Here we are - so worn out by our lives that we are not interested in adventure, only rest. Is it healthy to feel like you're ready for retirement when you're only 27?

At least we haven't succumbed to wheeled luggage though.