What's a Fernweh?
Oh, about three pounds. Bad old joke. Sorry.
I just recently was introduced to this German word fernweh by another sojourner. It roughly means “farsickness,” and is often paraphrased as, “an ache for distant places.” More accurately, it is a powerful yearning to go to a place to which we have never been. It’s the opposite of homesickness. There is no equivalent word in the English language for fernweh. I am quite happy to add this eloquence to my vocab because It has never felt spot-on to use wanderlust or wayfaring or trekking, for me. Those seem like descriptions of aimlessness, which do not describe the pull I have had inside me since my teens.
My travels commence once again in a matter of weeks. To finally reintroduce a bit of normalcy into life is literally miraculous. This trip is one of the big checkmarks on my list, and it comes right on time bc I need to sate my fernweh and will gladly trade my lockdown hygge for some fahrverngugen.
Thanks for playing Words Not Found in the English language. Next week, I’ll be powerpointing a basic imperial/metric conversions presentation entitled “Does this Fernweh more than 1.3 kilos?”
-lc
addendum: unfortunately, and sadly, the COVID variants are raging across the globe and as a direct result, the Nordic area to which I was traveling has now closed its’ borders to non-citizens. I may try to wait it out in Amsterdam (so far, the Netherlands is still open), but with winter approaching, that won’t be for long. I am not complaining bc so many have and are suffering horrendously with this virus. I am grateful to have received the vaccinations and have not become ill. Prayers for our Planet and our Peoples. 12 August - lc
My arctic boots, rated to -40` C/F, the only temperature at which `F and `C are equal.