Travel to me is like a plate of pancakes; comforting,
delicious, and laden with sweet maple syrup and, if you’re lucky, occasional
hits of bacon. On this particular
day, said pancakes are brimming with blueberries and vanilla – tastes that call
to mind two distinct places.
Blueberries from the blueberry farm outside of Hot Springs and vanilla
seeds from the fragrant vanilla beans I picked up in the Fa’a Airport in Tahiti. Travel and food take you places. Whether it’s through a smell or sound,
they lift you up and carry you away to places you’ve been, places you hope to
go, or places you can only dream of knowing someday.
Critics sometimes label those with the constant urge to
travel as those in search of an escape. This person cannot appreciate the
beauty of the life they lead or the place they’re from and constantly need to
escape to far and distant places.
I’ve encountered these types of folks in my twenty-six years, and to
them I have always offered up a rebuttal.
A traveler appreciates the beauty of the life they lead on a heightened
level.
We know that the soul of a
place is held by a building’s edifice, a beloved dish, or even it’s cab drivers.
It’s in the market that brings together
every color and class, all in search of that perfect summer ripened
tomato.
Through it’s absence, a
traveler has learned how to appreciate home in a way that many others
cannot.
They have come to love the
easy familiarity of the place they’re from, but have acquired the need to
explore and become lost in the chaos and confusion of wandering.
Eventually, familiar is the strangeness
of a taste you cannot identify, a face you do not recognize, and a feeling of
anonymity that breathes new life into possibilities you had previously cast
aside.
This feeling is the elixir
to the 8-5, the consumerism, the can not, and it is a drug for those who choose
to uncover it.
I love to travel, to wander, to gallivant. This blog will be
about the places, people, food, animals, and experiences I come across in my
travels…places I hope you can experience with me. Thank you for reading, and I hope you love Gallivantology!
Casey - I have been told that I am irresponsible and immature for wanting to spend my money on traveling -- that I'm not taking the "responsible" route and money for an apartment, etc...
ReplyDeleteI find it deplorable that people would stomp on my dreams simply because they cannot bring themselves to enjoy the wonders of this world. Traveling is not meant to wait until we are old and retired...it is meant for all ages, at any stage in life.
Of course, my philosophy is "do it while you're young." Thankfully, I have the support of my family and close friends who witness my irresistible urge to travel and actually support me in this.
Never listen to those critics...they'll never understand or appreciate the art of traveling and its ability to mold us travelers into well-rounded people who 1) don't take for granted the earth in which we live 2) can see life for more than its pithy arguments and differences, but instead, find the similarities that bond us together, and 3) love to experience life outside the normal routine of every day life.
You and I were given a gift, the gift of wanderlust. To travel the world is to learn, live and most of all, love.
I know my mini-rant here may sound cheesy, but it's true. Not many people are given this gift, and to those who have it, it will never be a gift that is taking for granted. It will never be satisfied.
One thing I've always told myself, since I've been bitten by the travel bug, is when I die, I want to look back and say that I stepped outside my comfort zone, that I faced the world and all its beauty, that I experienced a world that despite all of its differences, is a world of hope and adventure.
No country or culture is meant to be learned through a textbook, instead, it was meant for us to see and experience first-hand.
Safe travels my beautiful friend.
Travel buddies for life :) -- Nicole
Seriously, are we the same person?? I love this so much, thanks for writing it here. I can't even tell you how many times I've been told by people in their 70s and 80s to just go. The biggest regrets in life was that they followed the flow that they felt they were supposed to instead of following their hearts. Here's to slaking that deep down thirst my friend!
DeleteHave so much fun in Germany!