In Transit. The Lure of Travel

I probably don't include commuting in this, but I really do get excited at the prospect of going somewhere.

Today, for example, I had the option of sitting at a desk and getting on with some writing (which I should have been doing) or figuring out the pictures I want to show at Artweeks in May (which I also should have been doing), instead I opted to get up at 6 AM to go into London to spend a day pottering around there.

The X90 from Oxford to London (other busses are available) may not qualify as classic travel but it does involve going somewhere.  I'm now sitting in a Starbucks (other coffee shops are available) in the City typing - at one level its indistinguishable from my local Starbucks, but at another level the buzz is different and the overheard conversations in Headington rarely include references to liquidity or over-hedging.

The change from the routine (which is why I excluded commuting earlier) is for me the essence of travel.  When I think about past journeys, or imagine future travels, I find myself concentrating on the novelty.  I recently wrote about the attraction of rail travel - this is the perfect example of continuous novelty, the landscape unfolds around you, there's always something new to see and to try and understand.

So how long do I need to be doing something before it becomes routine?  When I'm planning travels I always get torn between the desire to properly explore somewhere and the lure of moving on to the next place or thing. Is this a recipe for being superficial? Just occasionally I find myself (perhaps against better judgement) having booked into one place for a week. Is there going to be enough to do? Maybe I can do day trips to somewhere else.

Maybe I'm just a tourist at heart.  If I look through my CV maybe it has the same sense of travelling on rather then spending too long doing one thing.  Maybe even my career choice reflects this, I've always looked for new things or new technologies to work with.

But maybe this is all getting too profound for a Friday morning in a coffee shop when I should getting on with some writing.