Misconceptions about Business Travel

At the bowling alley on Wednesday night I mentioned to someone that I was rather tired because I'd been in madrid the previous day on business. I got the usual "Oh how nice" response - a bit of envy at the exotic locations get to go to. I'm getting rather tired of this response. For people who don't travel on business and whose only experience of travel abroad is for holidays it must seem nice to get to go to: Paris, Paris, Brussels, Belfast, Madrid, Paris on business. My trip to madrid is pretty typical though: Leave work at 15:00 Arrive at Madrid Airport at 22:45 local time (so that's over six and a half hours travel time including the loss of an hour in time zones) get to the hotel at 23:25 after the taxi driver can't find the hotel get to sleep at about 03:00 because i don't sleep well in strange places get up at 08:20 and find there's no hot water for a shower arrive at the office for the meeting at 09:00 lunch in a local restaurant who have NO vegetarian options on the menu at all (they leave the meat out of a mozzarella and tomato salad for me) get a taxi to the airport at 17:00 and chat with a couple of the guys from the meeting for a little while before my flight at 18;55 arrive back at Gatwick at 22:00 and get home about 23:15 Sure, I could spend another night in Madrid - probably paid for myself since it's entirely possible to get back the same day as the meeting so it wouldn't be chargeable. owever, that would leave me touristing entirely on my own, which i don't really find fun at all, plus there's the fact that whatever work I don't do on the following day still sits there for me to do when i get back. Now, OK, I'm something of a workaholic as most academics are (the misconception most people have about the work that academics do is an entire other post). I have had the benefit of business travel taking me places i want to go personally and having the travel to, e.g. conventions, partly or wholly paid for. But the assumption that travel to exotic places is a perk of the job is really irritating. It just takes a long time and leaves me exhausted (my sleep problems are part of that, I'll admit). I just get fed up of that "Oh that must be nice" reaction.