I don’t think I am a very anxious traveller and I daydream about the sunny side of travel a lot. But a couple of times a year, I wake up in the middle of the night from a nightmare, where I am trapped in a travel-related loop that gets worse and worse….

The Chad Visa

I am in line for a visa to Chad. Well, that’s to say the queue with the people all getting their visas is to my right. I am standing on the left side of the desk. For some reason, I am trying to pick up this visa in Germany, not at an embassy, but at a counter that resembles a post office. All the other people are receiving their visas, but there’s something wrong with mine. They have the application with my name on it, but I need to make another appointment. But I only have 3 weeks left! I try to plead, go through other options (Brussels!) in my head… and then wake up.

I visited Chad years ago, so I no longer need a visa for Chad. Also, for my upcoming trips, I have no difficult visa procedures. Could it be because I have been thinking about Algeria before I went to sleep (which does have an annoying visa policy)? But where does the German post office come from?

The Unfindable Bus Stop

This is actually a recurring one:

I am at a square, somewhere in Eastern Europe or Central Asia. It’s early morning and I need to get on a bus/marshrutka to my next destination. There’s no one around. I thought that the bus would stop at the far north corner of the square, but there isn’t one. Or am I at the wrong place? I walk around and around but cannot find the bus. Time ticks away and the departure time I heard about has passed already. This usually ends with a terrible loop, where the walking around searching continues “forever”.

This one is closer to my travellers life reality, as with using public transport (especially in a place like Central Asia!), it is always unsure where exactly the buses leave from and indications on maps often are inaccurate or outdated. But still, I have done that so many times that I really don’t worry about an actual bus to miss. The dream also pops up randomly, not related to actual bus trips.

Making sense of it

Dream interpreters are quick to point out larger life lessons from these kinds of dreams: “you’re frustrated by a lack of progress and despite your efforts, you may feel like you are not getting any closer to your goals”. Or “you feel powerless to change your circumstances”. But to me, they are more signs of being too involved in the minute details of travel – yes I plan and plan, maybe overplan my upcoming trips. And I work on the finer details of travel-related stuff all day (the introduction of Points-of-Interest to our maps certainly did not help…).

Have you had similar travel-related nightmares and can you retell one? And what do you think they mean?