The pressing need to "travel" ...

As I was looking through some old picture albums and written memories of mine I unexpectedly came across quite a few interesting "memorabilia", which made me think of the important role "travelling" has played in my life.

I have always felt a pressing need to "travel" and in a broader sense this "travelling" urge may not necessarily mean  to travel geographically ... but also "travel" into the heart of whatever I set my mind to, whether it is a foreign linguistic "venture" ... or even a different culture.

 My first Mandarin Chinese test. (1998)

Hong-Kong in 1998 (left). Sumbe, Angola (2001).

Nothing seems to give me more pleasure  than getting ready for any "trip" ahead or getting around the difficulties of some "trips", whether they range from an "encounter" with "characters" of all sorts and shapes, meeting different people with different concepts of life and cultural backgrounds ... or a trip "within myself".

Some are naturally harder than others, once they demand  a lot more from you than simply reading guide-books or any other  books one might find about this or that particular country.

One needs to be fully committed ... spending endless hours studying ... revising ... and when it comes to "venturing" within oneself one may need to analyse ... re-analyse one's actions or merely hypothesise the numerous situational possibilities and potential outcomes that may lay ahead.

At Lisbon airport on my way to Madrid (2004)

As a youngster I never gave too much thought to having a house and whichever possessions might be needed to go along with it ... I simply couldn't imagine myself staying at one particular place for too long ... and if I were to I felt it might be not more than a starting or returning point to and from those "travels".


I have bought a house (against all predictable odds) ... I have been long enough at the same job ... I have had my share of quite a few peculiar "travels" ... and yet I still feel the pressing need to keep on "travelling" ...