On Home and Elsewhere
Among the myriad English-language travel blogs, you’re likely to come across two specific words of German origin. The first, more common word is “wanderlust.” Though the German origins of the word are more concerned specifically with traveling by foot/walking in nature, the word has lost its specificity and is now more or less associated with a “strong desire to travel.” The second word is “fernweh,” the antonym of the German word (homesickness). It implies a longing for far-off places, literally a “farsickness.” In his essay for writer and photographer attempts to distinguish between the two with the following: “Fernweh is similar to wanderlust but, like , has a sickish, melancholy tinge. Wanderlust is rooted in the German Romantic tradition and is strongly tied to walking out in nature. […] Fernweh is a bit more imprecise. One simply wishes to
