Covid made us stay home in more ways than through restrictions. For some of us, it snapped our enthusiasm to go out forever. And, for a few of us, it made travelling when normalcy returned very difficult. But that did not make the longing to go somewhere else, to ‘go away’, go away. In fact, paradoxically, it made this yearning only stronger. As a result, there are people now – hundreds? thousands? – who are stricken with this condition that is the very opposite of homesickness.
The Germans have a word for this – fernweh, from ‘fern’, or distance, and ‘wehe’, or sickness. For those stricken with post-pandemic fernweh, this longing may not translate in travel, as it comes in conflict with the mental ‘obstacles’ mentioned. But even by itself, fernweh can be a beautiful, sad thing – where the flesh is willing but the spirit is weak. So, when you set out next, wish your fellow fernwehfarers a bon non-voyage.
