Sometimes, I don’t recongnize myself when I’m traveling. My moods really go to the extremes, things are amazing, and then horrible, it is fast and I can’t really keep track. At times, I just want to go home. At others, I feel I am in exactly where I should be.
I think I recognize the signs, though. It’s the getting used to being away, out of my comfort zone, in something wild and unknown. That’s when I need the small things that keep me grounded, the small safe zones in the middle of all this novelty.
My blue traveling silk sheets. I’ve had them ever since Bolivia in 2009. As long as I have them closest to my skin, sleeping feels okay.
Listening to podcasts in Swedish. This was something I started doing while in Canada in 2012, and it became such a comfort for me, hearing news from home when I lived in places where I had no one to speak Swedish to.
Writing. Writing always makes me find my way back to myself.
Katja Malmborg 