Thoughts on our Two-Plus Months of International Travel

We are back in Mexico and I’ve got to say something that I never thought I’d say – it feels so good to be back in our bus!

Last we left off, I shared our final Greek chapter – eight nights on Evia Island – and a few concluding thoughts on our dream-come-true three weeks in Greece.

Since then, we’ve been busy. We took a flight to Geneva and spent four nights with Bruno’s brother, sister-in-law and whole slew of nieces and their kids. Next, we took a train to the south of France and spent almost two weeks with Bruno’s parents. We saw Bruno’s other brother and his family and a couple more cousins. Then, we took a train to Barcelona and hopped on a flight to New York City for three nights. We saw my aunt Louise and my good friend Sahnah. Lastly – finally – we took one last flight to Mexico City and a long taxi ride back to our bus.

Let me repeat: I’ve never been so happy to see our Big Blue Bus.

Truth be told, it had been about a month already that I’d been daydreaming about being back in our bus. No more packing and unpacking, settling back into a routine, and having one set home and one set bed.

See, we’d been away from our bus life for almost two-and-a-half months. We’d been in four different countries, taken seven flights, two ferries, three trains, and four long car rides. In ten weeks, we had moved into nine different homes, slept in nine different beds. After a while, it had started to wear me down. Especially the fact that we were traveling with a toddler.

Those of you who are parents are probably shouting at your computer screens right now — “Duh!!!”

I know, rookie mistake.

I guess we got a little carried away with our travel plans. What was supposed to be two distinct trips – a few summer weeks in Atlantic Canada, and my best friend’s wedding in Greece – got combined because of greater affordability. The side trips to Toronto (to see my brother) and to France (to see Bruno’s family) got added on because of proximity (“we’re close enough, so we may as well see them too”). The stop-off in New York was added to break up what would have otherwise been an extremely long trip from southern France to Mexico.

And that’s how a couple of well-meaning simple trips morph into a single mega-trip with the corresponding array of countries, flights, and temporary homes.

Don’t get me wrong. When I look back at each individual section of our trip, my heart overflows with joy and gratitude. We made amazing memories and connected with some of the most special people in our lives. I also know that it’s an incredible privilege to have been able to take this trip at all, not only financially, but also having the luxury to take such a lengthy holiday. We are extremely blessed.

That being said, I don’t think we will do this kind of trip again. There was just way too much jumping around from place to place, and way too much transportation involved. Phoenix was such a trooper, and I am in awe of how well he adapted to all the new places and people (bringing along his travel bed helped). I do feel guilty, though, for having put Phoenix through something he didn’t ask for. It was definitely taxing on him, especially the long-haul flights and the many (many!) times we arrived late and exhausted to a new place.

How do I know this? Here’s one example: Before leaving on our trip, Phoenix was doing so well with his potty training, but by the time we got to Paros, Greece, he was having multiple accidents a day. In France he had a flat out potty strike on us, refusing to go and screaming anytime we put him near the potty. Potty training experts say this was way of trying to get a bit of control back in a lifestyle he had no control over, and it was heart-breaking to see him so upset. We haven’t had a single accident in the many days we’ve been back in the bus.

The pace of travel also affected me much more than I expected it to. Sometime during our Greece trip, the exhaustion of juggling socializing and parenting wore me down. Fatigue turned into illness – in Evia, I got a weird stomach bug; in France I got a really bad cold; and now that I’m back in the bus I’m suffering from a sinus pressure headache like no other. Even the days between each illness, I’ve had nagging fatigue. I haven’t really felt like my usual energetic self in over a month.

When we arrived in the south of France – a sort of home-away-from-home for us – I felt an overwhelming urge to just stay put there indefinitely. The idea of packing and unpacking again, and taking more trains and flights, was almost enough to bring me to tears.

When Bruno got an email from the airline stating that our flight had been postponed two days (yes, two DAYS!), the tears finally came. See, we had people arriving from Switzerland to rent our home the day of our original departure from France. So, the fact that our flight got pushed back two days meant that we’d have to add yet another packing/unpacking session and yet another stay in another house!

It was clear by my tears that I’d reached my travel limit. I was ready to be home (even if that home was a bus that I’ve had a love/hate relationship with this past year).

Bruno and I have had a couple of chats about what we’ve learned from this experience that we will take into future travels. Unbeknownst to one another, both of us had been feeling massive amounts of guilt at the environmental cost of flying. Flying as much as we did goes completely against the way in which we try to live our lives, which is to reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible. It’s not even just the emissions from the flights themselves that bother me – it’s all the single-use plastic that gets wasted on airplanes, and on my own more wasteful way of convenience-eating when we’re in transit. It just doesn’t feel aligned with our values.

There’s a part of me that feels like giving up all future non-bus-life travel completely. But I recognize that, for us, that’s not a reasonable option – we both have families far away that mean too much to us not to visit them each year. Plus, our livelihood depends in large part on our house rental in France, so we cannot afford not to go there each spring to do repairs and preparations for the summer season.

But I think Bruno and I have agreed that we are going to try to say NO more often. That we’re going to minimize our travel as much as is reasonable. Seriously consider the value of each potential trip. Avoid non-essential side-trips. And especially – especially – not do any more of these multi-destination itineraries.

We’re back home in the bus and I never thought I’d feel this happy about it. Yes, I’m under the weather (I was in bed for twelve hours last night!) and so I haven’t had the energy to fully rejoice yet. But we’re unpacked for the last time and I have my kitchen (and all its staples) back. I’m ready to do some massive RR&Ring – resting, recovering, and routine-ing.

We are eternally grateful for the travel opportunities we have had this year, and especially to all the people who hosted us or took the time to visit us these last few months. We are just as grateful for the opportunity, now, to slow down and dig back into our little life in the bus.

And what we are most of all grateful for, I think, is the fact that we don’t have to take another flight until next spring!