What is it we get out of travelling?

My husband and I have just returned home from a six week trip to North America. We drove through the stunning scenery of the Canadian Rockies and stayed in some beautiful towns (Banff was my favourite); cruised up the Inside Passage and got close to glaciers; visited Vancouver, Seattle and then flew into Kalispell, Montana and stayed at Big Fork, Montana while I studied for a week with Vianna Stibel, founder of ThetaHealing®; then last, but not least, we spent a week in New York (the highlight of that for me was seeing Bette Midler in Hello Dolly, she was brilliant!)   What did we discover on our way?   Breathtakingly beautiful scenery; a different way of living; different food; a different way of doing things; different toilets (which I think are much better than ours); different taps (in each hotel we had to work out something new!); different money; different food; different supermarkets; and the constant tipping!!   … and yet so much the same.   For most of us being out of our comfort zone is a challenge. It becomes obvious how many things we do without thinking, by instinct, and we become lazy. Put us in a different country and we have to think, we have to adjust, we have to accommodate for the differences. When you are in someone else’s country you have to adapt to the way they do things and sometimes that can be uncomfortable.   But when you embrace all the experiences you have in a different country then your life  and world view become so much richer.   After 42 days away I was very pleased to come home. To sleep in my bed and to be with my fur baby Rosie. And I realised how grateful I am for the beautiful part of the world I have chosen to make my home.