September 27, 2014 by Rita Anya Nara

How to Avoid Post-Vacation Depression

Here’s a quick quiz. Which of the following do you do when you get back home from a spectacular trip abroad?
a) go to bed, even after you’ve recovered from jet lag
b) have a beer (or two or three) and ignore your pile of bills for a week
c) turn on the Travel Channel and leave it on (after you’ve gone back to bed)
d) look around your home with subtle disgust and distaste
e) two or more of the above

If you have a slight grimace on your face, keep reading.

Let’s be honest, if not dramatic: bringing your vacation to a close can be a rewarding, emotional, and draining experience. You may feel euphoric, proud, reborn, grateful, fulfilled, and like a different person. After you’ve seen, done, and been a part of many incredible things abroad, it can be hard to move on – and even more challenging not to slip into a major funk as you compare your vacation lifestyle with the realities waiting at home.

Here are some ideas for preventing post-trip doldrums from turning into a real bout of depression. While they’re not going to make you feel as great as you did while dining in London or Rome, you might find yourself feeling as good or even better than you did before you left for your trip — and with some energy left over to dream about your next getaway.

Manage your Restlessness. Traveling comes with a certain intensity and compression that can be difficult to unwind from. It also has the effect of “slowing” time, since you often do more different and eye-opening things in a single day than you might in a week at home. When you return, the restlessness you get from not doing something “new and different” can be downright unnerving. This restlessness usually goes away within three to six weeks of settling back into your everyday life. If you have the time, try taking smaller day trips in the weeks after your return to wear it off.

Become More Active. When you travel, you might realize that you’re not in the shape you thought you were, and as you gradually increase your fitness level during your trip, you may notice how much better you feel. This can inspire you to join a gym or take up a sport (including one you tried on your vacation) when you return. Becoming more active will not only make it easier to be in shape for the next trip; it can give any mounting depression a cheerful kick in the face. You may also conveniently lose some of the weight you gained at that last round of restaurants in Venice.

Clean Your House. Sound like an odd suggestion? Besides being obviously practical, cleaning your house can help you clear your head and reconnect with your usual surroundings. Your own home can feel unfamiliar and even strange after you’ve been through four or five hotel rooms in a row. Doing some cleaning will also help you find physical (and emotional) space for everything you brought home so you’re not tripping over your half-unpacked suitcase every time you meander to the coffee table for your copy of Conde Nast Traveler. Finally, you may start to redecorate with small things you bought on your trip, such as placemats, pottery, and wall hangings, so that you’re spreading the joy of your vacation around you, literally.

Clean OUT Your House. Living out of a suitcase can make you realize just how little you need to lead a full life. A lot of people are inspired to unload a number of little-used items from their home after they return from vacation, and find it convenient to host a garage sale or sell items on eBay in order to make money for the next trip.

Having fewer possessions can also focus you more on your present life, and give you a far greater sense of freedom. And making a nice chunk of money to put towards Tokyo or Hong Kong is going to do wonders for your mood.

Start a New Hobby. During a trip you’re exposed to a myriad of new and different things – or the same things that you are used to, but in a different context. A common hobby you may take up after returning home is learning how to cook a certain ethnic food, or studying the language of a place you plan to revisit. Such things often need only a modest investment in time or money, and give you that exhilarating feel you get while on a trip — of doing something for the first time.

Make New Acquaintances and Friends. To relive positive memories, you may be unable to resist telling others a lot about your trip – even if you’ve never shared much of anything with anyone. Since people are generally curious to hear firsthand experiences of other places and cultures, your chances of being rebuffed are pretty minimal. To coworkers and people who don’t know you well, you become known as “the traveler,” which makes a great icebreaker every time you see someone that you didn’t feel comfortable talking to before.

And last but not least…

Keep Sharing! A lot of travel bloggers post almost every day while they are abroad, and then wind down their posts or even come to a dead stop when they return home. Don’t do this! Save some experiences and photos to share after you’ve started unpacking; not only will it “extend” your trip, but it can also take some of the pressure off your hectic touring schedule (let’s face it, blogging after a 10-hour day in Paris might not be something you can stay awake for). And let’s not forget what travel and blogging have in common: connecting you with the world. The more you connect, the less likely you are to get depressed.

Honey, can we empty these bags and go right back out again?

Oh wait, we live in the real world. And the real world isn’t bad; it’s what we make of it!

September 16, 2014 by Rita Anya Nara

How to Prepare an Emergency Medical Contact Card Before You Go Abroad

If you’ve ever had to visit an ER or doctor in another country, you know how critical it is to have an emergency medical card, and several supplemental documents, with you at all times (or at least in your hotel room). Some of this medical and personal information seems pointless to write down since you can reel it off the top of your head, but most of it isn’t — and you don’t want to be kicking yourself for not having the contact info you need when you’re ill or injured so far from home.

Your emergency medical card (or page, printout, etc.) and supplemental info should include your critical health and personal data, and definitely not be left to the last minute since it can take surprisingly long (as in, upwards of eight hours!) to gather and list all the information. Sound boring and tedious to put together? It is — but hopefully the following can help.

Your card should include the names, phone numbers, and addresses or email addresses for the following:

1. Family member or close contact remaining at home;

2. Your doctor at home, your pharmacy, and your health care provider;

3. Travel insurance (and any medevac insurance) information;

4. Place(s) of lodging at your destination;

5. The U.S. Embassy or consulate in your destination country;

6. A list of your medications, including generic and brand names, reason for taking each, dosage information, and how often taken;

7. All medical conditions or allergies you have; and

8. Documentation of any immunizations required by the country you’re visiting.

Items to attach or keep with this card include:

1. A copy of your medical insurance card (keep the original in your wallet);

2. At least one insurance claim form (note that you shouldn’t have to navigate through the member services department of your HMO to get insurance claim forms; the travel clinic should carry them);

3. A signed letter from your physician describing your general medical condition(s), and all current medications;

4. The list of urgent care services and doctors that you have researched in each country (or, more likely, had your physician or travel agent research for you); and, if you’re traveling off the beaten tourist track:

5. The name of any medication conditions, and medications, written in the local languages of the areas you plan to visit. For translation services, try asking your travel clinic first since your main care practitioner may not know where to send you within your HMO or PPO. Note that it’s unwise to use a free online translation service since the software may misunderstand (or not understand at all) complex medical and technical terms and any abbreviations.

Keep the card and all supplemental documents somewhere where they won’t get wet or stolen (to be on the safe side, include one copy in your purse or smaller bag, and one in your checked luggage). Tell anyone traveling with you about the card and supplements, and their location(s).

While you’re busy compiling all this information, don’t forget to fill out the page inside your passport with the name, address, and telephone number of someone to be contacted in an emergency (you’d be amazed at how many people forget to do this).

Finally, before you go, be sure to register your destination countries, visit dates, and hotel addresses in your country’s traveler enrollment program. For Americans, this would be the U.S Embassy’s STEP (Smart Traveler Enrollment Program) system at https://step.state.gov/step/. If you do need urgent assistance from an embassy, STEP will already have your basic information on file.

Canadians should go to http://travel.gc.ca/travelling/registration, U.K. citizens should go to https://www.gov.uk/browse/abroad/travel-abroad, and Australians should go to https://www.orao.dfat.gov.au/orao/weborao.nsf/Homeform?Openform .

Prepare your card BEFORE your trip — and not while you’re killing time on the train!

September 6, 2014 by Rita Anya Nara

Has 9/11 Become the Safest Day of the Year to Travel?

Quite possibly. Very possibly. And why, you ask? Are you kidding?

Have you been to a major American or other Western airport on 9/11? The lines are shorter, but the screenings take longer, because they’re more thorough. There are fewer distractions. The music blaring from Duty-Free is turned down a bit; there isn’t the same raucous chatter from tour groups and families about to depart. Everyone is watching everyone else.

The pilots and flight attendants are more vigilant. Passengers don’t leave bags unattended for five seconds (much less a couple minutes) to recheck their boarding time on the screen. There’s a subtle, but depressing and deadened hush from gate to gate, from terminal to terminal. Planes are triple-checked instead of double-checked. Air traffic controllers watch every move on their monitors and across the sky as if their lives depended on it.

Which to me, at least, all suggests that 9/11 may in fact be the safest day of the entire year to get on an airplane — at least in the West, and at any number of other areas scarred by a terror attack.

But would you care to fly on 9/11? My guess is no.

As we approach the 12th anniversary of 9/11, it’s worth taking a brief look at what’s happened at airports and on airplanes, both in terms of safety and security. Besides a couple of terrifying near-misses involving a shoe bomb and liquid gels, there hasn’t been a major incident or threat. Newer security measures (which are now years old) border on knee-jerk reactions (no one had to remove their shoes before Richard Reid’s threat; no one had a problem with our jug of water until the scare with the bottles of chemicals onboard).

It’s impossible to say if terrorists want an encore of a certain tragedy to drive their message home. From what I’ve observed, they usually move on to some other tactic once they’re successful at a particular “mission.” Take the World Trade Center, for example: after some unsuccessful tries to bring it down, the jihadists accomplished their “mission” and moved on to… well, a variety of other things. Embassies will always remain vulnerable targets. Car bombings are smaller-scale, but accomplish the same basic “goal.”

To me, the people that seem most scared — and maybe rightfully so — are the ones with the Eurail or Amtrak passes. I need to glance through my own travel anxiety book every time I get on a train now. Of course I’m scared. Isn’t everyone?

Will I be flying on 9/11 this year? No, because it’s still a little too hot in Turkey during the first half of September. I’ve given myself a good reason (excuse?) to fly on the less auspicious date of 9/26 instead.

Will you be flying on 9/11 this year? Maybe not, since it’s coming up fast, you might have other plans, and it still holds that sickening power of imagination and dread over us. But would you consider doing so in the future? You might. From my look around during the last 9/11, it seems about as safe as you can get, and your courage — and indifference to the date — flies right in the face of what every jihadist most wants.