Maybe I should have been a spy?

Where in the world is Nathan now?  Well, since my last update, I've continuing my travels up through the island of Great Britain, made my way across the rolling green pastures of the northern English countryside, crossed the border over into the fabled land of William Wallace to Scotland, explored the Scottish Highlands, jumped over to the rugged Isle of Skye, hitched a ride back to the city of Dundee (not to be confused with the crocodile Australian variety), trained it to Edinburgh, and hoped on a flight to Portugal!  Sounds like a whirlwind and, in all honesty, it was!  Tiring in fact.  I think after nearly six weeks on the road (the last two and a half on foreign soil) I hit my first point of "travel fatigue."

Travel fatigue?  I know what you are thinking - "...come on Nathan... you are 'living the dream'... let's swap lives for a day and you'll know the real meaning of 'fatigue'... are you kidding me...?"  While, in theory, it is easy to imagine the idea of escaping our day-to-day routines and daydream about a magical place we visualize ourselves exploring or relaxing in, the reality is, we often over-romanticize such ideas.  It is easy enough to close your eyes and mentally journey to some exotic utopia... it is another thing all together facing the realities of getting from point A to B while on the road as a traveling nomad. 

Snapping out of the daydream, my eyes have opened to the realities of pouring over bus routes & timetables... train routes & timetables... bus-to-train-to-bus connections... the ritual of seeking out an Internet cafe... juggling windows in search of coordinating transportation with accommodation while weighing location and price... and all this while often translating foreign languages and knowing tomorrow you will be doing the same to get to destination C and beyond... be not fooled, traveling in such a way is no vacation! 

Ah, the challenge of traveling the world on a limited budget without the benefit of a personal comfort coordinator, laptop or phone!  In time you learn that overcoming the struggles is, in fact, part of the adventure, maybe one you didn't knowingly sign up for but, a challenge that yields itself to both daily defeats and victories.  But there is benefit in such challenge: There is beauty in the fact that while traveling alone, these daily battles are all your own, and, provide increasing measures of capability as you learn, adapt, and survive to face the next challenge awaiting down the road!  I travel looking forward to growing through personal challenges.  Word of advice - careful what you wish for!   

So now I am in Portugal.  Combating travel fatigue by staying put for a few days in the seaside resort town of Cascais up the coast from Lisbon.  It is great to be in a warmer locale, near the beach & surf, and exciting to be in the land of Teixeiras.  It seems as though, even in Portugal, my appearance baffles ("Are you Spanish?").  Maybe I should have been a spy?  Then again, maybe I am and you just haven't figured that out yet.... Hmm...