While struggling with choosing, scanning and uploading photos to my newly created travel pages, many memories from various travels came back, making me think about what has actually been making travelling so meaningful for me through all those years. Yes, it was sometimes just to relax, or to see something, or to be with somebody, or to be alone, but I guess there is much more to it than just collecting photos and souvenirs in order to show off in front of friends.
Travelling means getting my butt out of the safety zone into the less controllable environment and circumstances and, along with that, letting the life have more influence on me. Yes, it is a choice to be willing to be influenced – just as they say what the real communication is all about. To be willing to be influenced. So, by travelling I could say I am stating my willingness to be influenced by life; so that my experiences and understandings may deepen and my horizons may widen.
But, of course, this only applies to the travel that is not organized so well that I would not have to move out of my safety zone – in other words, travelling in aircon vehicles with bodyguard-like travel guides with open umbrellas…, heh, that does not count.
Even more; the less my mind likes the travelling experiences on the very spot, the more my horizons are widening right there and than. And in case I like it and feel utterly comfortable, than I guess I am missing out a big opportunity and my perception of life remains untouched.
I am not trying to say that the best way to travel is to make it intentionally an ultimately suffering event, but I am pretty much sure that what works for me is to, while travelling, seek diversity rather than similarity. Diversity can enrich me, while similarity just makes me doze off.
So, how was Albania? A bit of dozing off in similarities and a lot of challenging, enriching and heart warming differences. In simple words: it was really great. Next year we are going back there.
Look at that bridge! I have a friend who took his family to Alaska for two weeks. He keeps sending back these amzing pictures of BEARS.
Comment by Hayden Tompkins — July 23, 2008 @ 6:19 pm
Travelling is much the same for me, I can’t stand organised tours and anything hinting of that. For me you can not call it an experience until you have experienced. Going to Spain and seeing the beaches is not the same as trying to have a conversation with a local, enjoying a traditional dish at a traditional non tourist restaurant or cafe – that is experience and that is living.
Glad Albania was all of that and more, hard to quantify into words isn’t it? It just is. Wow! Fab photo will look through those travel pages in a mo’
Welcome Back!
Comment by SanityFound — July 23, 2008 @ 7:38 pm
Hayden, this bridge was a funny thing. When we reached it for the first time, after 5 hours of a terrible track, I stopped, pretty unsure whether it was wise to continue. Somebody from that remote village came running and asked, with a non-existent English: “you … problem?”, signalling that he would be glad to take over and drive my van over the bridge. I tried to get across to him that: “Me … no problem! Bridge … big problem!” Well, it all ended in laughter and I thought that heavier vehicles probably go across as well, so, what the heck… On our way back I was already pretty cool, as you, of course, immediately noticed.
Sanity, yes, I couldn’t agree more. And with everything being organized, written in LP guides, all the spots on Earth already entered in GPS and every modern cell phone having a GPS receiver built in…, the spirit of the real travel is getting lost. I can see student backpackers here in my town; the first thing they do is sit down in an internet cafee, get plugged in to a forum of some kind to see if there are more backpackers from their home country in town, than they get together, sit down somewhere and drink/talk. Why bother travelling that far to sit with your fellow countrymen?
Yet, when did we have the best experiences while travelling? Wasn’t it when we got lost, confused, when things went wrong? To my experience this is when the best things happen. So, let’s get lost as many times as possible.
Comment by Robert — July 23, 2008 @ 8:40 pm