"Why We Travel" Response

In his essay, "Why We Travel", Pico Iyer offered so many distinct definitions of 'travel' and how we perceive it, that I was overwhelmed and ultimately struggled to choose which most stood out to me. Overall, I would have to say his assertion that traveling abroad is "the place where we stay up late, follow impulse and find ourselves...wide open..." resonated with me, particularly. I love that he addresses the reality of how we do stay up later than we might at home, and we do act more optimistic and eager to learn than we would at home. I feel like this difference in behavior is one of the main reasons I adore traveling, and he put that feeling into words for me. Furthermore, I appreciated that Iyer addressed how in travel "reality is our creation, and that we invent the places we see..." because I can definitely recognize the effect of our experiences on our perception of a foreign country. For example, I might be more interested in history and culture, while my friend may be more interested in the night scene and the city aspect of a country. We're inevitably going to have different memories of the same trip, and Iyer did a good job of drawing that distinction.