I just realized that around these days I have been only in Finland for one year (trips to Estonia don’t count). That is to say that I haven’t traveled anywhere abroad for one whole year. This is the first time such an atrocity has happened in … let’s see … 10 years! No wonder it feels weird.
When I started at my current job about a year ago, I knew it would virtually eliminate all business travel. It did, and I was quite happy about it. I had grown tired of being away about 50% of my working days; at worst times, I was in Finland for two days total in about two months (weekends away too), which was too little time home. Anyway, with a new job came a fact of no summer holidays during the first year, so no great personal travel opportunities either.
Now, however, I’m again sick of this country. And not just sick of the country but more like sick of this macro-scale immobility. My job still doesn’t require travelling, and I still like that. But only sort of. So I have to shape up and make my own travel plans. The major obvious downside with that is that instead of earning money, that way you end up spending money. Sure, it’s a matter of prioritization, but what if everything – or suffcient number of things – is prioritized “highest of the high”?
To add some motivation, as if any more would be needed, it’s not just myself who wants me to travel either. Just today my doctor recommended to me that I should travel to someplace warm and sunny every winter for a couple of weeks, if at all possible. I’m not kidding either. And who am I to argue a doctor’s recommendation? 
