Fernweh and a Story About My Passports
As I sit here in my current home in Sofia, Bulgaria, I contemplate my wanderlust. You know that German word, but here is an even better one: Fernweh. To explain this concept, let me explain that the German word for homesickness is Heimweh, so — since “Fern-” means distant (think “far”) — this is a succinct word for the longing to travel.
I am actually a homebody; I would rather not go out tonight, thank you. Likewise I stress out at planning and preparing for a trip; this is why my fiancee either has to hold my feet to the fire or take the initiative herself. Once I’m on the way I’m fine, and afterward my reminiscence is such that I don’t even flinch when I see the 4-figure credit bill at the end of the month. It was all worth it!
I say all this to say that periodically (let’s say more or less monthly) I feel this Fernweh. I may have been inspired by just reminiscing about a previous trip, seeing an airplane coming in for a landing (it seems I’ve always lived near an airport), or watching a video about travel like the compelling ones made by Casey Niestat, Rick Steves, or — most recently — this one about road trips by Mike Rugnetta. Then that itch is back; it will not be long before I’m traveling again!
I suppose part of the reason is obvious: I am the child of immigrants. Regardless of how well-traveled you may be, you’ve have to admit it’s a whole different level of wanderlust that makes a person, like my parents, pick up and move to another country permanently. I have done this as well, just in the opposite direction: US to Europe. And it’s not just me; now one of my American nephews is living in Europe as well. I am also reminded of another nephew, who — at 12 years old — recently got his first passport and is now raring to travel somewhere, anywhere. I am convinced that there must be some genetic component to this wanderlust. Since America is a country of immigrants, one would expect to find this characteristic more prevalent. Unfortunately, it seems to be rare; in fact, 64% of Americans do not even have a valid passport, meaning they cannot travel outside the borders of the USA. Well, this is not exactly true; there seem to be ever longer extensions for exceptions, most notably for Caribbean cruises from US ports. I understand that the $110 cost for a passport is not trivial, but the fact that 64% do not have a passport is still hard for foreigners — even of modest means — to understand.
One of the impetuses for the following story is the realization that my father implied (unfairly, I would say) that I was responsible for ensuring I had a valid passport — at the tender age of 13! On second reading however, I realized that left out much of the international adventures my brothers and I experienced over the years because of my parents — despite their modest income. For this, I am ever so grateful, and the following is a tribute to them.
My Passports
Before anyone worries too much; I am very well aware the dangers of disclosing personal data, and I have carefully obscured personally identifiable information from the images below (besides my name, which you already know since I’m the author.)
These days, I can’t imagine not having a valid passport; in fact, I now have two. However, this has not always been the case, as I will show. Below is my first passport, which started it all. In 1978, I flew to Germany with my parents and two brothers. Here we met three of my grandparents for the first time (my maternal grandmother had visited the US numerous times) as well as a slew of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Of course it is somewhat boring to hang around while my parents caught up with these people that they had not seen in decades, but I do recall it was an eye-opening experience that gave plenty of fodder for show & tell at school.
Incidentally, notice the amendments (endorsements) for my younger brothers. This is no longer allowed; even newborns need their own passports to travel internationally now. Amendments are a holdover from the early days of the modern passport. A mid-19th to early 20th century passports could include amendments for a man’s wife, children, and even servants!
As you can see, the passport above expired in February 1983, and the one below was issued July 1983. Funny story that! It turns out we discovered this only a few days before leaving on an international trip. There was no way to send it off for renewal and get the new one back in time. Even though I was only 13, my father thought he would teach me a lesson, and he sent this nerdy kid you see below off on a flight to Washington DC to have it renewed in person and return that same evening. Well, it all worked out; I got my new passport (below) and we flew out the next day together to Israel. However, the lesson was not learned, as we will see.
Again, you will notice expiration date: July 1988, and the new passport (below) was issued August 1988. Guess when I discovered this? Granted, now I was legally an adult, and therefore it was my responsibility to keep up with this. Anyhow, this time I flew with my parents to New York in the morning, took a taxi to the passport office, but realized that I would not get a new passport the same day. That meant I had to spend a night in NYC as my parents boarded the overseas flight that evening. The next day, with this shiny, new passport in hand, I made my way to JFK and took the next flight to Greece. I rejoined my parents in Athens, having missed the first 24 hours of our tour. Certainly the lesson had been learned by now, one would think.
This passport saw my brother Micah and me on our first trip overseas without parents. We visited our uncle & aunt in Germany, and somehow we even were able to rent a car and drive to Switzerland — something generally not possible for anyone under the age of 25. My brother got the best souvenir: a speeding ticket on the German autobahn (some sections do have speed limits, it turns out.)
Before my father emigrated to the US, he first emigrated to Australia. He used to regale us with stories about his adventures down under and promised us that one day he would take us there. Well, in 1998 he made good on this promised, and on Christmas Eve my brother Simon and I were to fly with him to Sydney (via Los Angles.) Problem was, my passport expired August 1998! Thankfully I noticed in time to send the passport and renewal form via express service to an expeditor in Washington DC, who walked it through the lines and immediately sent the new passport back via UPS Next Day service, arriving mere hours before we were to depart on our first leg. (I seem to recall that we had to call UPS and meet the delivery driver on the way to the airport.)
The passport above has to be my favorite. Besides student visas for Austria and Australia, it also contains my first visa to Bulgaria. Starting in 2004, I began to collect stamps so quickly that I accumulated more than in all previous passports combined. In fact, in 2006 I went to the US Embassy in Sofia to get pages added to it (at that time, this was still possible.) By the time 2008 rolled around, I was traveling so extensively that I had to be strategic about when to send this passport off for renewal, because around this time the US had tightened passport requirements for all travel — even Canada & Mexico — causing long delays in passport processing. As you see, I didn’t cut it close at all this time, renewing it 10 months early. Lesson finally learned!
As an aside, and I recommend this for everyone, dress up for you passport picture! Regardless of the situation, I suspect that whatever authority looks at this will — in at least in a small, unconscious way — hold you in higher regard as a respectable professional even at your most slovenly, post-vacation self.
This passport has also collected numerous stamps (mostly entry/exits for Bulgaria.) Currently there are only 3 empty pages left; I don’t know if I’ll make it to 2018 without having to get additional pages again.
[2017 Update:] I again strategically renewed my passport 10 months early, knowing I would be in the US for a while. Despite warnings of long processing times (2017 being the 10-year anniversary of tightened passport requirements), I actually received my new passport in less than 4 weeks after mailing in the old one with a renewal application. And, of course, I sprung for the 52 page one!
Since you are reading this, you might also be interested in another post I wrote about the US passport card.
In 2013, it became clear that I was going to be living in Europe more or less permanently and the hassle & expense of applying for long-term visas was tiresome. I came to realize that since I was born before my father became a naturalized US citizen, I had become a German citizen automatically. Never the less, the determination process was not trivial. Besides the documentation my father could provide, we had to send off for birth certificates and wait close to a year before I finally could apply for this prize: a genuine European Union passport that would allow me to live & work in any of the 28 countries of the EU! It does still feel strange to see “Nationality: Deutsch”, but I am in fact a German and American dual citizen. As far as entry/exit stamps, thankfully this is no longer an issue; EU passports are not stamped at any EU border.
By the way, I am not writing this to show off or dazzle you with my cosmopolitan credential, but to encourage you to get out there and travel. As Mark Twain said about us Americans: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” So, get out there and feed your Fernweh!
If you’re an American who needs to obtain or renew a passport it has become easier than ever in the Internet age; just start here: travel.state.gov And if you are a bonehead like me, and find yourself needing a passport in a hurry, there are now over 20 regional passport agencies all over the USA, where — for an extra “expedited fee” — you may even be able to get same day service. Also, please note that many countries will deny you entry if your passport is about to expire, even if it’s weeks or months after your planned return to the US.
As noted early, there is now an option when renewing your passport: you can request a 52-pager (instead of the standard 28-page one) for no additional cost! This is important because the State Department will no longer add pages to your passport; if you fill it up, you have to get a new one. So go ahead do it, and assume that you will be the globe-hopping jet-setter you’re destined to be.
