I wrote this in February of last year but didn’t publish it. I love looking back on impressions from past trips because there is so much that is forgotten with the passage of time, like ennui and burning pizza!

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Two years since my last post. That sounds like a long time in the abstract, but is it really when lived? Two years ago I had gotten back from a less than satisfying trip to New Orleans because of interference from work. I’ve always prided myself on being able to travel unencumbered with professional pressures; yet, my last trip to NOLA in February of 2013 changed all that. I’ve since realized that, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve become subject to the same petty but persistent demands – experienced by most – of the paying gig. Since then, I’ve traveled for work, which has to be to most cruel punishment of all created by Beelzebub to torture the lover of travel. I’ve also gone home for the holidays and had a couple of short trips.

But now, I’m on the last week of a true vacation. No work. No work email. For three weeks. I’m living like a European.

So why do I feel so unsatisfied? I’m in Athens. I spent five days in New York. I went to the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show for the first time, which was as much fun as I expected. Yay, doggies! And then five days in London.

I do feel like I’ve spent most of my time willing myself to relax and disconnect. Why don’t I feel it? Have I built up this trip so much through anticipation that it has inevitably disappointed? I feel like I’m working at relaxing. What has happened to me? Where has the real me gone?

I have moved around more than I had planned. I caught a cold at the end of the New York portion so stayed in a hotel for the first couple of days in London (rather than subjecting friends to nasty, American germs). I’m now in my second hotel in Athens because my first was hosting kids who have never stayed in a hotel before and wanted to stay up all night slamming doors and burning pizza – the fire alarm went off at 4 a.m. Isn’t the first time without adult supervision magical – for you but not for everyone else? And it was expensive. And not in central Athens.

So now I have a view of the Acropolis and have a non-rainy day tomorrow. If the gods smile, I’ll be able to avoid tourists and enjoy the marvels of ancient Greece in relative peace. I’m still waiting to completely relax. Maybe I just haven’t had enough Ouzo yet. Now there’s a worthy goal.