#AskHauterfly: What is Fernweh?

#AskHauterfly: What is Fernweh?

This time round, we’re taking a break from the fashion and beauty queries for #AskHauterfly, and exploring the world of travel. There are some beautiful words from various languages, across borders that have the power to instill the love for travel in you. One such gorgeous word is ‘Fernweh’. You may have seen it on someone’s Facebook or WhatsApp status or as a tattoo recommendation, without really knowing its meaning.

This German word simply means the longing for distant places, literally the opposite of homesickness. That feeling you get when you have a love for a place where you have never been to, where you have never met the people that reside there, and yet feel an inexplicable connection with them. That is fernweh — when your heart aches not for your lover, but for travel, for a place that is in your dreams.

Some people often confuse it with wanderlust. Wanderlust is the desire to travel, yes, but fernweh is the pain that takes over when you don’t get to travel. It is a deeper, more intrinsic feeling. You know, how you meet someone and you feel pure lust, while others instill a feeling of deep love? It’s exactly like that. So go ahead, add this word to your vocabulary and travel as much as you can, because life is too short to feel fernweh!

My mind full of hope and eagerness to travel far and beyond further than the eyes can see.
My body aches for those places I have yet to travel to.
My eyes seek those places unimaginably visited.
My soul searches for another like me.

(A poem by Secret Poet on Hello Poetry)

Japleen Kaur

Hauterfly's Lifestyle writer and resident Potterhead. In love with boxes, diaries, food, and conversations. Always in a state of fernweh. (Don't know what that means? Search the site for more!)

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