Travel
Felix Hartmann
On arriving somewhere and immediately wanting to come back.
The best trips end before they should. That is how you know they were worth taking.
The feeling before you have even unpacked
There are trips you know, almost immediately, are not going to be long enough. You arrive, you look around, you put your bag down, and somewhere in the back of your mind a small quiet voice says you are going to need more time than you have. This is not a bad feeling. It is one of the better ones travel produces. It means you found the right place.
What makes somewhere worth returning to
The places worth returning to are almost never the ones that impressed you. Impression is easy. A view, a meal, an unexpected piece of architecture. These things register and then fade. What stays is something harder to name. A quality of light. A pace that suited you. The particular way an afternoon felt when you had nothing specific to do and did not mind at all.
The return that never quite matches
The difficult thing about wanting to go back is that going back is never exactly the same. The first time you arrive somewhere, everything is new. The second time, you are measuring it against a memory. The third time, if you are lucky, you stop measuring and simply arrive. That third visit is the one worth waiting for. That is when a place stops being somewhere you went and starts being somewhere you know.
What you are actually looking for
I have come to think that the urge to return somewhere is not really about the place. It is about who you were when you were there. Travel at its best does something to your sense of what is possible in a day. The pace slows or quickens in exactly the right way. You make decisions differently. You notice things you would walk past at home. Going back is an attempt to find that version of yourself again. Sometimes it works.
The ones worth booking again
There is a short list of places I have been that I think about with the particular ache of something unfinished. Not because I did not do enough there but because I did enough to know there was more. These are the trips I am planning to take again. Not to recreate what happened the first time but to find out what happens the second.
The best trips end before they should. That is how you know they were worth taking.
The ache of something unfinished
There is a short list of places I have been that I think about with a particular kind of longing. Not because I did not do enough there but because I did enough to know there was more. It is a specific feeling, different from missing somewhere you left behind. It is more like an awareness of an open door. The trip ended but the place did not.
Why you should book it again
There is no good reason to keep putting off the return trip. The place is not going anywhere but you are changing, and the version of you that goes back will not be the same one that left. That is not a reason to wait. That is a reason to go sooner. The trip you are imagining and the trip you will actually have are two different things. The only way to find out which one is better is to book the flight.
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About the author
Felix Hartmann
Contributing writer at Commonplace. Writes about design, travel, and the decisions behind things most people use without ever thinking about. Has a habit of turning a short piece into a long one and an even worse habit of being right about it. Based in Berlin.
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