I’ve developed a strange habit as of late.

Sometime in the middle of the night, at least once a week, I sit upright in bed in a complete panic. It takes a minute for me to adjust my eyes, study my surroundings, and answer the question that woke me with such a start:

“Where the F$%# am I?”

I only wish I looked this cute while mid-panic.

Call it an unknown hazard of the profession. Given that I often change beds every few nights, I suppose it is natural that I may forget where I am from time to time. In mid-night desperation, I weave through my rolodex of recent destinations until I land on the one that seems most appropriate, at which point I am usually able to will myself back to sleep. (Pete goes entirely unaffected, however, and barely stirs as I am momentarily terror-stricken beside him.)

I recently thought I had rid myself of this habit, as it only occurred to me twice during our extended stay in Turkey. My mind apparently adjusted to the fact that I had settled somewhat, and the panic was shed. But now it is back in full force as we have been moving a bit faster through eastern Canada, and have no plans for consistent rest in the next few months.

Yes, I even freak out in castles. After Turkey we went straight to Toronto, and enjoyed living here for a few days thanks to Flip Key.

But that’s okay, I have accepted this affliction. One anxious moment of fear every few days is an easy price to pay for this nomadic lifestyle we live and love. And in a few months I can hope to alleviate it again.

It has taken us awhile (FOUR YEARS), but we’ve finally figured out a travel cycle that works to reduce the terror, mitigates travel fatigue, yet allows us to feed our insatiable travel bug at regular intervals.

~2 months on, ~2 months off.

With regards to house-sitting, that is. Even though it is definitely our favourite way to travel as it allows us to really get to know the foreign area we are living in, it can be limiting. We can’t always come and go as we please, and there is the added burden of pet care, etc. – it is like living in our own home, and carries all the same responsibilities.

We still do love it as house-sitting also provides a welcome period of rest for us. It allows us to catch up on work for this blog and other things, let’s us relax and feel “at home”. And yes, it stops the panicking for a short while.

My office during a two-month house-sit in Wisconsin. Pure bliss!

So now that we’ve just had our “2 months on” in Turkey, we’re working through our itinerary for our “2 months off” (although it is looking more like 3 at this point, we are very excited to be on-the-move again)! We’ve just spent a week in Toronto, and are exploring a few spots in Québec before we move on out of Canada again. (Where to next? You’ll just have to read Wednesday’s post to find out.)

It’s not a hard and fast rule, we’ll sprinkle in some short house-sits here and there, or else build some extra exploration to time of sitting still, but we finally, FINALLY, seem to have found a travel cycle that works for us.