"The Art of Travel" by Alain de Botton

This book consists of various chapters about artists who travelled, planned to travel or visualised travel in their art.

The story that stuck with me most is the one about Charles Baudelaire. He is an avid admirer of Charles Dickens and plans this major journey to London. The day of travel has come, he has all his luggage and ensemble packed and is off to the train station. While having a bit of time left before his train is due he decides to go have lunch. While eating he thinks about how great and exciting this trip is going to be, being in the same surrounding as his literary idol, roaming the streets of London. He gets so worked up about this that he ends up returning home never to leave his mansion, again. This whole story captures the feeling I sometimes get about travelling but also about 'regular' plans. You build everything up in your head, picture the secenery and the scenarios and suddenly you don't feel the need to go anymore, at all - because you already played it out in your head.

The second story that stuck with me is the one about J.K. Huysmans who - being on holiday in his hotel room, having travelled a long way to get there - feels no different than he does when he is home. He reminisces about the fact that you will always be you, your thoughts will always be your thoughts and your problems always your problems, no matter if you are currently at the most beautiful location you'll ever be.

These two stories in particular have helped me a tremendous amount with the expecations of my travels, giving me a more realistic view of its effect on me and therefore, making it possible for me to be surprised and view events more positive.