What a month of travel can do

A month of travel through the Netherlands and Israel: airport questioning, a night in the desert, cold overnight oats, the Dead Sea, and a body that sent me a small bill when I got home. About what travel does to your rhythm, and why my daily routines are the reason I could enjoy all of it.

The trip was finally happening

Before I left, I knew it was going to be an intense month, that would probably backfire in some ways. And at the same time I was so looking forward to seeing my own family and friends in the Netherlands and then meeting Itay and his family and friends in Israel. A country I’ve never been to before and where it’s complicated.

I’d just had my kidney tests done, with good results, and I know by now what my body can handle and how to recover well.
My daily routines of regular meals, early enough nights, following the rhythm of the sun and regular movement and rest, keep my body working well. On top of that it keeps my battery (ojas) full enough so that when something happens, I have more resilience.

It had already been a busy summer with building the yurt, my own practice, studying and the green roof building group I’m in, and now it was travel time.

First the Netherlands, which you’ve heard about: the train, holding my pee, the discomfort and the two weeks of getting everything moving well again.
And then Israel, to reunite with Itay and meet his family for the first time. It was just before our 3-year anniversary, and he hadn’t seen his family in two years either.
We had planned to go in May but that got cancelled, so now the time had finally come.

The journey there already was a lesson in patience and basic needs. An hour of questions at the check-in desk where they asked literally everything, up to an invoice of my work and a photo of my parents’ birthday party which I didn’t take. Then having to go to a different boarding gate to be checked and questioned again. They were kind, very thorough and understandably so and I could only bring my phone (no cables), airpods and a book on board, no food, water, noise cancelling headphones, nose oil, snacks, nada, it all went into the hold.
It is a strange thing to hand over the things I prepared for my own well-being and to depend on the drinks and the sandwich on board, which fortunately was very tasty.
I arrived well. Itay picked me up, but I was so tired that I said ‘hi’ to his parents and shared my experience briefly, took a shower and just wanted to rest.

Different rhythms

What was a bit tricky in the first few days was that in the Netherlands the sun had been rising and setting around half past seven and it was autumn-ish weather. In Israel it was 32 degrees and as the wintertime started, light at six and dark by half past five.

I tend to live with the sun, so my autumn brain was properly confused with this light and temperature schedule. Every morning I could feel the urgency to get up early to enjoy the daylight, but we were still too sleepy, because our bedtime hadn’t caught up yet.

The routines that make it all possible

One night we camped in the desert under an almost full moon. We brought food but no fire, expecting there to be friendly neighbours. For dinner we shared a lovely meal with a couple staying next to us, for breakfast I had my first uncooked overnight oats, with raw fruit and everything (I see my Ayurveda people cringe and other people be like ‘so?’), it went down well, I was hungry enough. I still don’t recommend it though. Warm and cooked just makes for a much happier belly.

From there we drove to the Dead Sea, which was on my wish list to see. Here the water is so salty it feels oily and leaves a film on your skin (it now makes total sense why Ayurveda says salt aggravates pitta). Kind of gross and smelly but the floating is a pretty cool experience. Nothing like the salt pools in a spa I’ve experienced. Fortunately there was a sweet stream next to it to rinse off in.

Itay also organised a cat-sitting apartment in the North, to give us some alone (with cute cats) time instead of staying at his parents’ and meet up with several really lovely friends living in that area.

It was such an interesting experience staying in different places during this trip, at a pace and environments that are so different from how we live in Spain. Making me feel so grateful for our lives there.

And then it was time to go back home. My body was already showing me the vata build-up, as we say in Ayurvedaland. I had period cramps for the first time in many years. A good flight but a late arrival with a shitty noisy night in Madrid. A shaky train the next morning during which I read a book, giving me a very light but persistent motion sickness, leaving me without appetite and therefore barely eating. A few spoonfuls of watery cooked vegetables in the evening because there was hunger under the nausea, and then a wobbly low-energy day with diarrhoea on top. Different climates in four weeks, travel, time changes, irregular different meals, broken sleep, lots of new impressions and people. Of course there was a bill.
But by the following morning my appetite was back, my belly was calm, and my rhythm slowly came back on its own.

So that’s the point of this story, the routines, the self-care, the ‘work’ I do to stay healthy, allow me to fully enjoy this month, do the things I normally wouldn’t do and enjoy them. And yes there was a little price to pay, but I wouldn’t have wanted to miss this whole experience.

These routines are what make this freedom and enjoyment possible, and are the safe home to come back to afterwards.

And now it’s back to normal life with free weekly Insight Timer sessions, with an Ayurveda talk on tiredness again this Saturday at 15:00 CET and lots of new ideas that will slowly take shape over time.

much love,
Rianne