Oh, travel!

Musings on novelty and new experiences.

Somewhere in Virginia.

Hello, hello!

I’m writing to you today from Roanoke, VA, where we stayed one night at The Hotel Roanoke, a historic Tudor-style hotel built in 1882. It’s beautiful! I will share some photos on Instagram soon.

K. and I left NYC on Friday morning and are making our way to Nashville, TN, by car, making stops along the way in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia so far. I’m not sure where we’ll stop for lunch later today as we drive from Roanoke to Nashville. Taking suggestions! (Reply or leave a comment.)

I don’t think I’ve ever been to WV or VA before, not even a drive-through on the way to somewhere else. It’s incredibly scenic, with its mountains and valleys, which, of course, makes the long drives more enjoyable. I would love to spend more time here exploring and being outdoorsy, but we’re on a schedule so we can make it to California in time for the next Turkey World Cup match. Don’t ask me which match it is; all I know is that at some point in the next 10 days, the US and TR will play, so K. and I will be up against each other. We’re going to the game festivals in San Jose and Los Angeles. I’m afraid it will be a mob scene, but YOLO.

I was telling K. the other night that I feel like I have two settings. I’m either in full homebody mode, enjoying Sofa Saturdays (and my routine), or traveling. I suppose we’re all like this, but exploring new places always reminds me how much I love the novelty of it and that I should seek out more newness in Amsterdam, instead of sinking into the same old routine every week. Whenever I travel, I come up with ideas for new things to try, but I rarely follow through once I’m back home. This time, it’s things like working as a barista for a day at a cafe (just for fun), volunteer work, and painting more (outside my weekly oil painting class). I’m good about planning museum visits in Amsterdam, but there is so much more to discover there. I think about when I first moved to Amsterdam in 2019. I was always out and about, trying new things, or maybe it was the same old stuff I had always been doing, but it felt new because it was in a new city with new people. Either way, I miss that novelty.

Yesterday, as I was driving through winding mountain roads and listening to a country music playlist on Spotify (two things I never do), I was thinking about how exciting it would be to rent out our apartment in Amsterdam and live on the road for a while, but then I realized that’s basically what we’re doing right now. We’re doing it!

That’s all I’ve got for today, but more soon!

Alexis

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