Tag: Musings

“Travel broadens the mind.” A well worn idiom that is so over used as to be meaningless. That said nothing could be more true, that is of course if you do it right. Maybe I’m a bit of a snob, but to me going from airport to hotel to tour bus on repeat, with a few photos in front of some famous landmarks is NOT travel. Travel is about immersing in a place and experiencing something new and different from your everyday life. With the right attitude, a trip to the supermarket can qualify if you take the time to slow down, open your eyes and ears, and take notice of what’s going on around you.

But, of course, for most of us, our day-to-day lives are too busy to have time for that kind of indulgence. We need to remove our selves from our lives, even if only temporarily. When we travel, we use all of our senses to the full, it’s tiring but also exhilarating. This is why we are alive.

Followers of my Instagram account (@bookblog76) will have seen pictures taken on my most recent overseas adventure. My intention was to try and convey, through a visual medium, a feel for what I was experiencing. For me, while the usual sights in those places were wonderful, it was more the small details that I loved the most.

The fact is every time I travel all it does is remind me how great the world really is, and how much there is to experience. I’ve been home a couple of weeks now, and already the cogs have started turning planning the next great leap into the unknown. At the same time though, it’s important focus on the here and now. With my senses still open and engaged it is a chance to notice the small, but wonderful things that I take for granted.

I know from experience that this feeling won’t last long. All too soon, the real world will take over and I will be back to being fully immersed in the mundane and the underwhelming. So if you don’t mind, I’m just going to got out into the world for a bit longer, while I can still see it.