I agree that it is hard! My husband and I had a long-distance relationship before we were married. We fell in love in 1999. The problem was that he lived in Sweden and I lived in Scotland. It was difficult, but we managed. We kept in regular contact via e-mails etc and some telephone calls. We spent 6 weeks each summer together (3 in Scotland and 3 in Sweden) and a few long weekends during the year. Some people say "out of sight, out of mind" but I believe that if you are really in life, the saying "absence makes the heart grow fonder". It certainly did in our case.
We got married in 2002 and I live in Sweden now.