Day 40-something maybe. Crete! And a different kind of homesickness.

Soooo… I’m bad at updating. That’s well established. My dreams of being a travel writer are slowly dying with the realization that good travel adventures are not conducive to regular updates. Or I just have commitment issues and an inclination to sleep away my downtime.

I’m in Greece! Specifically in Crete (more specifically in Iraklio, even more specifically in a bus station waiting for the 7:30am bus to Rythmno), having just disembarked an overnight ferry from Athens. I arrived in Greece Saturday afternoon after a sad goodbye to Egypt and the tour crew, and the last few days have been some much-needed sleep, a walking tour around Athens including the Acropolis and Parthenon, an adventure to the post office, and lots of wandering around markets and eating delicious souvlaki.

I suppose I should go back to the places I’ve left off (Dammit I think I’m still working on the tail end of Nepal. Feels like years ago now!), but I think I might go off on a different tangent. Besides, my feet are killing me from all the walking we (me plus Cat from Brooklyn/Paris) did yesterday and I think I might spend much of today laying low, so hopefully I can hash out some of the dates and details of the trip then.

The more I travel the more I feel like Vancouver isn’t home. It’s not a nice feeling, not knowing where home is. And I know it’s home for now, but it’s starting to feel like it’s not home /;’’’’’’’’’’’’’.iuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu]\[

That last paragraph was courtesy of the cute white and orange cat that’s clamoured up onto my lap for some snuggles (and then onto my keyboard for some messages of her own). Two other people tried to pick her up with no luck, and instead she came over and climbed up on me. Cute! Less cute is my cardigan now covered with cat hair, but I needed to do laundry anyway. C’est la vie!

Maybe home is just wherever there’s a cat or dog that loves you. Which brings me back to Vancouver (well, Mission) being my “now” home, as it’s where all the things I identify with home (friends, family, Jack, house, work opportunities, car, etc etc) are. But the more I think about it, the less it feels like somewhere I could or would want to live forever.

So what I’m left with is a weird kind of homelessness. I don’t know where home is supposed to be, but I think it involves sun and sand and saltwater, and I think I’ll have to keep looking.

I’ve never understood why people don’t live at the places they dream to vacation. If you work hard all year to save up enough money to go somewhere beautiful, you’re doing it wrong. Granted, many beachy places are in developing countries with fewer opportunities than those that we have at home, but what’s the price of happiness? I’d happily take a paycut if it meant I could dig my toes into sand everyday.

I’ve been feeling very un-Canadian, in that Vancouver is the nicest, warmest place in Vancouver and it’s still too rainy and cold for my taste. I can’t imagine living in a place that’s cold and dark and rainy for 3/4 of the year. And I don’t think I’d live in the US. So what I’m left with is somewhere far away from all the things I currently identify as home. And it’s scary to think that if I moved to say, Australia, I wouldn’t be regularly seeing all the people I love.

K now the cat is biting me. She just got a lot more playful and a lot more annoying. But she’s still cute.

But it’s cool to think I’d be living in the future.

K the cat just farted. That’s my cue to pack this up and head to my bus.