Longing to Travel Abroad Again

I'm sure I'm not the only one who hears the news about COVID outbreaks, vaccines, travel restrictions etc and thinks "I just want to go to ______ (again).... Can this insanity PLEASE end?!" I didn't realize until recently how much this has been in the back of my mind pretty much at all times. If I'm being honest, it REALLY sucks. The longing to get away and knowing the places I want to go are out of the realm of possible for me to visit. But I can't shake the desire to travel abroad. So here I am writing to let it all out and to let you know you're not alone.

So what do we do? Other than giving it up to God and telling Him how I feel the only thing I've found that reduces that ache is just talking about and daydreaming about the places I want to go. It obviously doesn't take away the desire, but it helps manage the ache by allowing myself to acknowledge it and deal with it in a healthy manner. I may even have sparked that desire to travel to my favorite places in people that have never been there. Maybe I should start a tour group for after the pandemic! haha

Although I want to follow my own advice and tell you stories about my favorite places, show you videos/pictures of my favorite things there and research new places to visit with you... this blog post isn't the venue for that. It would be a pretty one sided conversation to say the least. But I will share a little bit of info about just one of the places I want to go (which will be no surprise to any of you that know anything at all about me) and you can drop a note to me in the comments if you are interested to hear more about it. After that, I welcome you to drop a comment to tell me about the spot YOU are aching to visit, whether for the first time or the 30th time.

For those of you that don't read Chinese - these say "This is Yantai" and "I love Yantai" This coastal city in Shandong Province, China is my home away from home. I've left a part of my heart there after living there for 4 years and visiting there numerous times. I really DO love Yantai.

I don't even know where to begin to talk about Yantai. I love the people, I love the food, I love the city and the countryside, I love the night life (which isn't anything AT ALL like what you're thinking unless you've been to China), I love the culture and I tolerate the insane weather (hot hot humid monsoon summers and freezing cold, icy, windy winters).

I think the easiest thing for me is to just share some photos from my most recent trip to Yantai in fall 2019. By no means are these the best photos I've taken nor are they all most memorable moments or places I go often - they're just pictures of a city that means a lot to me and I chose to capture a moment in time to share with others and to be able to look back at and reminisce over.

Bonus content. Video of a quiet moment at a cultural site in Yantai in which you can hear the flute being played by someone else taking a moment to share their love of music: