I have never gotten much enjoyment out of vacations. They usually seem like more trouble than they are worth.
I’ve only had one vacation that I enjoyed. That vacation involved going back to my old university and hanging out at the math department for a few days. While there, I attended a seminar in abstract algebra and enjoyed it even if I didn’t pay all that much attention to abstract algebra as a graduate student.
This was while I still knew some of the grad students and a number of profs in the department. It’s now forty years since that vacation and I’m sure that every math prof I knew there has gone elsewhere or retired.
But for vacations like going to some city or national park or something, they just don’t soak in much. After learning about aphantasia, I began to wonder if that might be the cause — I can’t visualize anything of my vacation and so I can’t really relive it or daydream about it.
It’s kind of odd because I’m not really a people person — I’m perfectly happy to go for days without talking to anyone — but if I go on vacation, I get a lot more out of visiting old friends and doing things with them like playing snooker or going somewhere to eat.
Does anyone else encounter problems with enjoying vacations? Do you get anything out of trying to remember your vacations? What kind of vacations do you prefer?