Today I was listening to a podcast with Rick Steves and a pilot named Mark Vanhönacker who wrote a book titled Skyfaring. They had both travelled so much that they had lots of good stories. I can imagine the flight into South Africa's Cape Town, with sweeping views of Table mountain.
The most interesting thing I learned, was the term coined by Mark: placelag. Unlike jet lag, which is usually used negatively, placelag is the feeling of wonder that we have travelled by some miraculous means (like an airplane) a distance to a place we shouldn't be able to see so easily and quickly.
The jet lag flying red eye to Europe is exhausting and discombobulating, but the place lag of being on the beach in Barcelona after leaving a cool fall day in Montreal is an incredible gift, and the ability to travel in mere hours to another culture, language and time zone extraordinary!
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