1 The first would be the anticipation feeling, you know, when you book a trip, or plan it, look at the pictures, buy tickets,google photos, ask friends, proudly announce to everyone you are going on the hell of a trip, draw all the little scenarios in you head about all the little things that might happen on the way.
2 After the anticipation feeling comes the stressfull day and night before the journey, when you have to pack, and you hate your guts because you slept in and after you packed all the bags you realize that the shirt you wanted to wear is on the bottom of the bag, or that you packed you mobile phone and your passport in the bag along with your toothpaste. So after everything is in the right place, packed, and you sit back and relax for a while, be sure there are at least five things you will have to buy on the road because somehow, they just jumped out of your bags.
3 On the road feeling comes as soon as all your bags are on a train, plane, bus or in a car. You start moving forward, every minute gets you closer to your destination. You feel butterflies in your stomach as you pass the cities you´ve never been to, or the places you visited before and all the memories come back. It is different, weather you are going somewhere you´ve never been to, or the final destination is a place you traveled to before. When you are returning to a place you know, you have certain memories, some people in your mind or heart or both, it is more of a melancholy (for me) than an excitement. When I travel to a place I don´t know, I am a whole new person. I make these little stories in my mind about how different my life is back home, I never tell them to anybody, I just like the feeling of a new me being born out of a fantasy world. And as I feel this new me, I see the new place in a different light.
4 Arrival feeling. You gather your things, get your bags from the trunk, and step out to a different city. Different coutry. You see new people aroud you, stranger, faces that are not familiar at all. That is where I would love to scream in total joy if it was appropriate. Sometimes I fall in love at the first sight woth someone who just passed by, sometimes I even have the courage to ask for a good pub, bookstore or for a good company, sometimes it even works out.
5 When you have to leave. I sincerely hate leaving. But when I have to go home from somewhere, where I´ve been perfectly happy, I hate it even more. There is this feeling of commitment to something, like family, school, work, pets, friends and all that boring things wainting for me at home, that drives me crazy. And it is eventually the only thing that makes me return home from anywhere I´ve traveled for the last few years.
I love my home, don´t get me wrong, but it´s like living in a zoo. Everybody looks at you and remembers all the crazy things you´ve done. You can´t even get properly drunk once in a while without your neighbours asking you how did it go. And I hate being watched over as if I was 16 all over again. That is why I run away every now and then (once a year, twice at best) to have these beautiful feelings and meet all the beautiful people I haven´t met yet.