Hi everyone! I hope you’re all well. Today is Wednesday, and it’s time for another post in the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge hosted by Long and Short Reviews. If you would like to participate in the challenge, you can find the topics for 2024 here, and if you would like to read other people’s responses to this week’s topic, you can do so here.
How I Feel About Staycations
This is an odd one for me. The last holiday/vacation I went on was in 2011. That was a staycation. We went to Butlins (a holiday camp in Britain for all you non-brits) in Skegness. It was lovely, and I did prefer that to the previous holiday I took in 2007 to Benidorm in Spain.
I love Spain and have been to a few times to different parts over the years. The trouble is, I now have all these anxiety disorders that make life quite difficult. In 2007, I thought the best way to overcome my agoraphobia was to hop on a plane and force myself out of my comfort zone. In case you were wondering, that is not the correct way to treat a mental health condition. Needless to say, it didn’t work. I ended up stuck in an apartment for the whole trip while my friends went out and explored and partied.
Although I still have the same issues, I must admit I feel so much more comfortable staying at home (both literally and in general).
We often talk about going away for a short break somewhere quiet, for a change of scenery and to decompress — but I feel I’d only compress more.
My ideal version of a staycation would be to stay a few days in a quiet cottage in the middle of nowhere, where there are very few people but plenty of clear night skies and nature.
The awful thing about agoraphobia and other anxiety disorders, for me at least, is that I have all these places I’d love to visit, like Berlin, Vienna, Venice and Rome — but I think I’d only feel relaxed there if everyone else vanished — and there was only me and my family left to explore.
Well, that’s about it for today. I’m looking forward to reading about all your thoughts on staycations.
As always, thanks for reading my words!
Until next time,
George
© 2024 GLT
Categories: life, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge
GEORGE L THOMAS 
That’s tough, George!
But I Ike the idea of staying in a quiet cottage, too.
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I love the idea of there being prolonged periods of silence, punctuated by the occasional sound of nature.
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You’re not alone with this one. I’ve grown to appreciate staycations and since covid/lockdowns they have been more popular than previous. We have some coastal areas, I tend to visit the closer ones though like Brighton. Southampton was beautiful but too far for me. I’ve tried camping which was fun and manageable but personally for me day trip to a beautiful park are more ideal for me. Thanks for sharing.
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Thank you for commenting! I used to camp as a kid and loved it. My nephew can’t believe people would want to spend time outdoors away from a PlayStation. Times have certainly chnaged. I know what you mean about Covid as well. I think the pandemic changed so many things on an individual and global level.
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Though camping in the US is not something I want to do (Been there. Done that. Hated it.), there are places in the UK that would be lovely. Most tourist places are way too people-y most of the time, and I want to get out of there ASAP. I can only imagine how difficult it would be with agoraphobia.
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I loved camping as a kid, and the thing about camping is that you can, at least to some degree, control the number of people around. The UK has so many wonderful scenic places, especially coastal beauty spots. I wish we appreciated it nore as a nation.
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Thank you for sharing this. I’m not in the same situation as you are, but I feel it down to my bones because though my circumstances are different, the end result isn’t that far off. I also have anxiety, and that is crippling. I don’t have agoraphobia, but because of COVID and the chronic health conditions I have that make it a much bigger deal for me, I’m terrified of places with lots of people. I don’t trust anyone, and I feel like the air is a threat, which makes breathing in places with people hard. I’m also allergic to scents and the number of people who are aware of this issue or care enough to avoid strong scented products on things like plane journeys is somewhere around 0%. So I just know I’d end up sitting next to someone and then not being able to breathe. All of that makes going anywhere just…. not appealing. I am told I need to start slow and begin trying, but it’s so, so hard. I don’t know if I’ll ever get there.
If I could, though, I’d want to go back to the UK. My favourite memories from when I was younger are there. Random things like walking through the trails around my grandmother’s house or walking on the moors with nothing but heather for company. The feel of the place, the history and that sense of home that I’ve never had in the country I was born in. I miss it and really want to take my family there to meet the rest of my family. So if I could go anywhere, that would be it! As always, your post gave me lots to think about, so thank you!
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A cottage in the wilderness does sound lovely. Anxiety and fears are tough to deal with and feed on each other. When I’m stressed, I think my acrophobia is much worse. I was supposed to go with students to a musical, but the seats the school had gotten were so far up in the theater, I just couldn’t do it (fortunately, it wasn’t a probably for me to bag it at the last minute. I tried sitting there before the play thinking calm thoughts but then I realized I was crying with stress and fear.
Your nephew makes me laugh. I too have a nephew who couldn’t imagine being away from his Playstation or at least a portable version thereof.
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You’re right, Greta. Stress makes EVERYTHING worse. And I know everyone says it – they used to say it to me – but kids don’t know they’re born. 🤣
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