“Sometimes, she said, she could recognize a place just by the quality of the light. In Lisbon, the light at the end of spring leans madly over the houses, white and humid, and just a little bit salty. In Rio de Janeiro, in the season that the locals instinctively call ‘autumn’, and that the Europeans insist disdainfully is just a figment of their imagination, the light becomes gentler, like a shimmer of silk, sometimes accompanied by a humid grayness, which hangs over the streets, and then sinks down gently into the squares and gardens...In Berlin the sun is always laughing, at least during those moments when it manages to break through the clouds, like in those ecological stickers against nuclear power. Even in the most unlikely skies, Ângela Lúcia is able to discern shines that mustn’t be forgotten; until she visited Scandinavia she’d believed that in that part of the world during the winter months light was nothing but the figment of people’s imagination. But no, the clouds would occasionally light up with great flashes of hope. She said this, and stood up, adopting a dramatic pose: ‘And Egypt? In Cairo? Have you ever been to Cairo?… To the pyramids of Giza?…’ She lifted her hands and declaimed: ‘The light, majestic, falls; so potent, so alive, that it seems to settle on everything like a sort of luminous mist.”
― José Eduardo Agualusa, The Book of Chameleons
It is amazing to meet new people and say goodbye with the sentence "See you somewhere in the world again" and really mean it. Traveling is not the priviliege of the riches any more. It is much more an attitude and a skill. With good preparation and good budgeting one can see so much from the world.
Time is a very interesting matter when one is on the road, so is space. I have met many people who made traveling to a lifestyle and have been constantly on the road for years. Others like to have a home base where they return to from time to time and start to go from again.
The biggest thing what I learned from these people and from my own travels is that the world is full of possible connections. I am not talking about the neccesary small talk but about meeting someone who you really connect with in an instant in spite of being from totally different parts of the world and not even knowing short time before that the other person exists. It is surprising and scary how strong these connections can be. To realize that the world is full of your soulmates and people bringing something to your life who you do not know about yet.
When I travel I often listen to my instincts whatever instincts might mean. I see a nice mural so I walk into a shop where I meet some really cool people. I see the name of a museum and have a strong positive feeling about it so I walk in. Someone, the gallery owner waits there for me- who I saw before on the street and seemed very sympathetic, who leads me through the whole exhibition. I see a photo of fire - what actually lurked me to see the exhibition- and want to say that it reminds me of juhannus (midsummer) my favorite Finnish national holiday. When she tells me that it is a part of a series by a photographer from Paris and it was taken at juhannus to show the power of fire and the ancient strength of this holiday through it. Nothing on the photo would tell that it is from midsummer- there are no bonfires on it, just the flames. Still somehow I feel and say this sentence and the feeling proves to be true. So standing in Ponta Delgada, in Azores we are talking about Finland with an Azorean gallery owner thanks to the art work of a French photographer.
Other things I really value in people being on the road who I meet while traveling are: being interested in the world, taking risks, daring to be different, making sacrifices and being extremely flexible. Not everyone is all of these attributes but I tend to recognize many of these qualities in them. I am really happy to see that a group of women traveling alone is emerging. Of course when you stay at hostels for example you are never alone in the end- people go there to share their trip with others alike.
But after listening to the stories of great, adventurous men exploring the world now we can hear men and women telling about it at the same time.
― José Eduardo Agualusa, The Book of Chameleons
It is amazing to meet new people and say goodbye with the sentence "See you somewhere in the world again" and really mean it. Traveling is not the priviliege of the riches any more. It is much more an attitude and a skill. With good preparation and good budgeting one can see so much from the world.
Time is a very interesting matter when one is on the road, so is space. I have met many people who made traveling to a lifestyle and have been constantly on the road for years. Others like to have a home base where they return to from time to time and start to go from again.
The biggest thing what I learned from these people and from my own travels is that the world is full of possible connections. I am not talking about the neccesary small talk but about meeting someone who you really connect with in an instant in spite of being from totally different parts of the world and not even knowing short time before that the other person exists. It is surprising and scary how strong these connections can be. To realize that the world is full of your soulmates and people bringing something to your life who you do not know about yet.
When I travel I often listen to my instincts whatever instincts might mean. I see a nice mural so I walk into a shop where I meet some really cool people. I see the name of a museum and have a strong positive feeling about it so I walk in. Someone, the gallery owner waits there for me- who I saw before on the street and seemed very sympathetic, who leads me through the whole exhibition. I see a photo of fire - what actually lurked me to see the exhibition- and want to say that it reminds me of juhannus (midsummer) my favorite Finnish national holiday. When she tells me that it is a part of a series by a photographer from Paris and it was taken at juhannus to show the power of fire and the ancient strength of this holiday through it. Nothing on the photo would tell that it is from midsummer- there are no bonfires on it, just the flames. Still somehow I feel and say this sentence and the feeling proves to be true. So standing in Ponta Delgada, in Azores we are talking about Finland with an Azorean gallery owner thanks to the art work of a French photographer.
Other things I really value in people being on the road who I meet while traveling are: being interested in the world, taking risks, daring to be different, making sacrifices and being extremely flexible. Not everyone is all of these attributes but I tend to recognize many of these qualities in them. I am really happy to see that a group of women traveling alone is emerging. Of course when you stay at hostels for example you are never alone in the end- people go there to share their trip with others alike.
But after listening to the stories of great, adventurous men exploring the world now we can hear men and women telling about it at the same time.
No comments:
Post a Comment