Being a hermit is a matter of mental attitide, and little to do with travel.
This little island, for example, is filled to disaster point with tourists every summer, and with bicycle maniacs every autumn, winter and spring. (Suicide jockey was a term coined for these people who regard white, edge safety-lines for bicycles on roads as the ideal marker for side-by-side riding, one on each side of said line.) The point, though, is this: the bulk of the summer flock seems to care nothing for local ways, culture, food nor anything else: just sun, sand, free sex (they hope), booze and the production of fresh pavement pizzas each night. They fly in from God alone knows where, and go back home knowing nothing more than they did on arrival. Go, Johnny go! And please take your carapace back with you.
Of course, the problem is that they aren't LuLa readers and probably not even rabid snappers of images. That may or may not preclude sexting, though the latter may actually be an invention of the media and not really exist: no young lady, known or otherwise, has sent me either a requested (never requested) or unsolicited personal portrait of hidden bits via cellphone. I almost feel deprived.
Practical notes: my islands are double-edged swords: they make caravans very rare because of ferry costs (yes!) but also make moving off to the mainland of Europe quite a drag that involves booking, deciding how long you will stay away and thus how much you're gonna be screwed for the choice of type of tickets for your pair of little ovenight sailings. Ideally, the price should be standard, however long the muse tells you to drift in Europe - or beyond, if Visa is available strongly enough. How on Earth are you meant to know how the damned trip's gonna turn out? You may suddenly feel homesick or quite the opposite!
I hate the concept of variable pricing. Just as with airlines, they screw you when there is little choice of alternatives, and now it seems that when the volume is low, they no longer offer the flights at all. So, the sanctimonious argument about providing loooow-cost in winter and making up for such generosity in summer no longer holds if you want to fly here from Glasgow or Newastle, though I believe London always has flights available. That travelling north to south in Britain, which using London often necessitates, is also a heist-in-action is neither here nor there, which is why I mention it.
Rob
