旅行不一定在遠方｜把旅行、工作與退休，交織進每一天 Travel Is Closer Than You Think | Weaving Travel & Work into Everyday Life

旅行一定要搭飛機、住飯店、離開熟悉的城市，才算旅行嗎？ 有一天早上，我從圖書館走回家。來回不過 2000 步、大約 1.1 公里，但我沒有走平常熟悉的路。看到陌生的小巷就轉進去，聞到花香就停下來找找香味從哪裡來。就算走進死胡同，大不了再折返。 我慢慢發現，不管是在澎湖的工作週間，還是在台東、北投，甚至倫敦 long stay，我最喜歡的旅行方式其實都差不多：走路、繞路、觀察，偶爾什麼都不做。 最近讀青山千鶴子的《臺灣漫遊錄》，她寫到：「旅行啊，是在外生活。」我也在 Dan Koe 的 Podcast 裡聽到達爾文規律散步、工作與思考的生活方式。這些看似不相關的事情，卻讓我重新想到一個自己很喜歡的英文單字：intertwine——交織。 也許工作、玩樂、旅行，甚至我們想像中的退休生活，本來就不需要切得那麼清楚。 我曾經退休過八年。現在重新回到學校工作，反而不再急著等退休。 因為有些原本放在 bucket list、打算退休以後才做的事情，其實今天就可以先做一點點。 旅行不一定在遠方。 有時候，只要今天回家的時候，不走原來那條路。 Does travel always have to mean catching a flight, staying in a hotel, or leaving your familiar surroundings? One morning, I walked home from the library in Penghu. The entire trip was only about 2,000 steps — roughly 1.1 kilometers. But instead of taking my usual route, I wandered into unfamiliar streets, followed interesting scents, noticed small details, and occasionally ended up at a dead end. And that was part of the fun. I realized that whether I’m spending an ordinary workweek in Penghu, staying for a while in Taitung or Beitou, or long-staying in London, one of my favorite ways to travel is simply to walk, wander, observe, and give myself time to notice. Recently, a passage from Chizuko Aoyama’s Taiwan Travelogue and an episode of Dan Koe’s podcast about Charles Darwin’s walking routine brought me back to a word I love: intertwine. Perhaps work, play, travel, learning, and even the life we imagine having after retirement don’t need to exist in separate boxes. I once retired for eight years. Now that I’m back at work, strangely enough, I’m in no hurry to retire again. Some of the things sitting on our retirement bucket lists may not have to wait. Sometimes, travel is much closer than we think. Maybe it begins by simply taking a different way home.