Travel broadens the mind

...or so it has been said.

It's certainly a different experience, travelling on a German intercity train. It's only a half-hour journey from Frankfurt to Mannheim, and the train was pretty crowded, but fortuitously for me I fell through the door into a practically-empty buffet car and was more than happy to spend 3 euros on a diet Pepsi for the privilege of a seat and a chance to relax and watch the world go by for a while.

I'm even used to sitting on the right in a car travelling at an ungodly fast speed down the autobahn and not being at the wheel. Apparently my knuckles don't turn a lovely shade of white anymore.

The journey is almost fun now I'm used to it. I get ridiculously nervy travelling, though, even when I know where I'm going. I think it's because I'm so good at getting lost, or managing to miss flights without even having to do anything at all to contribute (like snow closing airports).

What I like best of all, though, is that now it feels like coming home, or it's certainly starting to. That's a good thing, but at the same time it unsettles me. I should know by now not to take anything for granted. That said, there's a small voice in the back of my head telling me that if I expect everything to go wrong, then it will. Self-fulfilling prophecies and all that. I'm good at expecting the worst, though. At least then it doesn't come as quite such an unpleasant surprise.

In many ways, this is the most grown-up relationship that I've been in. That may be perhaps more to do with the fact that I've grown up a fair bit over the last few years. A consequence of growing older, I expect, as well as reaching a certain level of maturity.

When I was 21, I fell for a man who was 8 years my senior. He seemed terribly grown-up at the time, but looking back on it at that stage in my life he was probably far too old for me. I was a pretty young 21, and he was a convenient way out of an abusive relationship I'd been trying to break free from since I was 17. Not the most ideal start for any new relationship.

Maybe the relationships that grow from friendships are the better kind...deeper-rooted, with a greater understanding of each other from the outset because so much is already known, although there are still many mysteries to be explored.

Perhaps the only thing I can be certain of is that each relationship has been different from the last, some more so than others. And I like where I am now, very much.