Travelling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things: air, sleep, dreams, sea, the sky. All things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it. – Cesare Pavese
She loved the sea. She liked the sharp salty smell of the air, and the vastness of the horizons bonded only by a vault of azure sky above. – George R R Martin
It’s amazing isn’t it how much time we spend thinking about, planning and travelling abroad for holidays and trips. It’s all about where we can get the cheapest flight to or the most exotic beach destination. Last weekend, however, I discovered something so beautiful and the best thing about it was just how close to home it is. I’ve lived in Chiswick, London for over six months now (many more to come hopefully) and much to my flatmate’s dismay, I’m ashamed to say that until this weekend I had not yet made it down to the river at all. The River Thames is right on my doorstep and snakes through the whole city, and I’ve admired it many times – from afar, from the top of the London Eye, from rooftop bars and buildings, from riverside pubs in Richmond, but I’ve never followed its banks to the district I now call home. Well, on Sunday it was a beautiful day: cold, crisp and bright. One of those days where the wind is so bitingly cold …
In the first week of January, we all have a chance for a fresh start. It’s a new chapter, a blank page, a fresh slate. It’s the perfect opportunity to reflect on the previous year, what you gained or lost, what you achieved or what you maybe pushed to the back of your priorities, intentionally or not. And of course to focus on the upcoming year ahead and what your goals or aspirations are, what you want to review or change in your life and much more. When it comes to travel, it can be all too easy to let the weeks and months go by without planning your much-needed holidays until it gets to the point where you’re desperate to leave the country or go on an adventure and you end up booking something last minute – as an easier or cheaper alternative to something on your real bucketlist. All it takes is a little planning! As it’s the first weekend of January, why not make the most of this fresh start to grab …
“In space, your convictions get heightened. You find yourself laughing and crying much more. You start to think, about all those people you know in, say, Saskatoon, and how they’re not that different from the people in the city in Africa that you’ve never been to – trying their best, raising their kids – and how your particular set of loves relates to everything else” This is what happens on this Earth, too, when you travel and let yourself live a bit differently, and see others live differently. No text book, degree or diploma will give you the valuable experience of what another city or country can provide. Travel the world, live in other cities, learn cultures. Learn because it keeps your mind young and your ideas developing. Travelling offers you possibilities. When you’re stuck about what to do next in life, get on a plane and spend time in another country. You not only learn about others, you learn about yourself. Travel opens up options you never knew you could have. You’ll become clearer …
“That is why we need to travel. If we don’t offer ourselves to the unknown, our senses dull. Our world becomes small and we lose our sense of wonder. Our eyes don’t lift to the horizon; our ears don’t hear the sounds around us. The edge is both comfortable and limiting. We wake up one day and find that we have lost our dreams in order to protect our days. Don’t let yourself become one of those people. The fear of the unknown and the lure of the comfortable will conspire to keep you from taking the chances the traveller has to take. But if you take them, you will never regret your choice.” – Kent Nerburn (Letters to my Son)
If, like me, you have globetrotters for friends, send them on the road with the perfect present this Christmas season…Here are my top 5 ideas: 1. Lonely Planet Travel Book // £10-20 These are the best travel books around in my opinion – from handy and informative travel guides to inspirational coffee table books, I don’t think you can ever have enough! Lonely Planet’s The World (as featured in above image) – I LOVE my copy of this and they have just released an even more beautiful hard-back copy in purple which I love even more (is it too much to have both versions?!) Lonely Planet’s Ultimate Travelist – this also forms part of my ever-growing travel book collection and I am obsessed with it! Really great for general travel inspiration and a great looking coffee table addition for any keen adventurer. Lonely Planet’s Best In Travel 2018 – I don’t have this one (yet) but have been eying it up for a while and am really keen to get my hands on it to …
She loved the sea. She liked the sharp salty smell of the air, and the vastness of the horizons bonded only by a vault of azure sky above – George R. R. Martin
We must reach beyond both our borders and our comfort zones to confront today’s greatest challenges – and to experience the refreshing joy that you can recognise yourself in others, regardless of where on the planet you may live. – Barbara Bush
Some days in life, and I feel like a lot of people would agree, I just want to escape everything; people, my city, the country, normal life and society. For Chris McCandless, whose name you might recognise from the famous film Into The Wild, this thought resonated more than, and on a different scale to, most. It tells the true story of how materialism and the superficial nature of society led him to leave behind $25,000, his family, and all of his possessions and escape into the Alaskan wilderness. Read my review here…but for now I will leave you with the inspiring lyrics of the film’s soundtrack, written by Eddie Vedder: It’s a mystery to me We have a greed with which we have agreed And you think you have to want more than you need Until you have it all, you won’t be free Society, you’re a crazy breed I hope you’re not lonely without me When you want more than you have, you think you need And when you think more than …
Footprints Around The Globe 