Can I Please Take This with Me?

November 24, 2022

Now that I have been travelling for five months, I can tell you some of the biggest challenges of moving from place-to-place and, well, not having my own home.

Number one: The bed. I am a girl who needs a good night’s sleep. Period. As I have gotten older (I’m in my 50s), I have come to appreciate a mattress with a bit of give. I’m not talking totally squishy, but I love a pillow top or some memory foam.

For the last five years, I had been spoiled with a Sleep Number bed, and I loved it.  I loved putting my feet up and taking a rest after a good hike or a day of skiing. I loved making it a little softer when my body needed some recovery time. And I loved the massage feature; it could get me back to sleep when I had those random 3:00 AM wake ups.

As you can imagine, not every hotel or short-term rental apartment has the best bed. The worst are the firm ones. I can’t say I’ve had one that was too soft yet. When I stayed in Valencia for a month, I got lucky. I really couldn’t have asked for a better mattress. (Well, except for that Sleep Number.)

Number two: Low quality or missing utensils. I like to cook and bake. For some reason making a delicious dinner with few ingredients while travelling is highly satisfying. Sometimes, it’s just throwing in one more thing, like the chopped Italian pancetta that I added to the sauteed vegetables and chicken breast tonight.

The problem is that I rarely have a sharp knife to work with, and ugh, sometimes the cutting boards are far beyond the day they should have been replaced. Yuck. Do I really have to eat food that has been chopped on this bacteria-ridden nightmare?

I also don’t understand why so many places have metal spatulas with nonstick pans. Don’t people know better? Don’t they understand that’s why their pans are all scratched up?

Number three: Lack of little comforts. My current journey started in Portugal and Spain in September and October. The weather was fabulous, in the 70s and 80s with very little rain. Then Daylight Savings time ended, and I was in the mountains of Andorra a week later. It was nearly freezing and pouring rain the day I arrived. After that, the days continued to be colder and shorter. In the evenings, I was longing for my favorite throw, the one that is like sheepskin.

Bathtubs are a rarity in hotels and rentals these days. When I get one, I am a happy girl. That room in Andorra did have a tub. It was on the small side, but I didn’t care. A couple of week later, I spent the night in Barcelona before flying to meet a friend in Italy. I was grateful to have tub that night because I ended up walking more than expected that afternoon and evening.

Still, I wouldn’t trade the little annoyances or discomforts for the joy of my nomadic lifestyle.