It is hard to describe the magic of some places….But in my experience every place you leave has to be left with a heart-breaking goodbye…That is how you know that you have not only lived in a place, but that it has lived in you…This month is dedicated to the quotes left by the volunteers and people I met at the Gili Meno Eco Hostel - where I volunteered for my project – A hostel built by travellers for travellers – and that left something of a taste of Alex Garland's The Beach... Truth is I never really left the place because I carry it in my heart constantly…It is a place you enter as a stranger and leave as a family member and that is what makes it beautiful. Check out this space for the quotes and the stories left by these amazing and brave travellers !
0 Comments
“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.”
Cambodia, India, Thailand, Indonesia - this was where Rita had spent the last 7 months away from everything and everyone she knew... If there was any image that came to mind to describe her, it was that she was like a plane on continuous turbulence. She had the kind of energy and vividness I believe you would only get after having spent 7 continuous months off track, 7 months out of your comfort zone – and now she was in the most brutal phases of all… trying to land back to a normal life rhythm, trying to land to a place she could call a new home in Madrid... Our lives are filled with moments of turbulence and uncertainty. But then again, they account for the best stories too – if you’re planning to live a life well lived, embrace the turbulence for the results it may give – because it’s the brutality and the turbulence that gives it worth…Because the landing will happen, maybe not now, but eventually. “The fear it grips me, but here I go…” (Lyrics from Alt-J)
Helen (From USA) had just arrived to Madrid as her first stop in her travels and search for another “home” – She had ditched her job and packed everything in a car to do this. I read in her eyes part of the fear but also the bravery. I don’t believe that any great person in history has ever achieved anything without first having to battle with their own fears. Be it the fear of failure or uncertainty, while you’re about the land in a new country or even start a new job or give a presentation – we’ve all experienced it and it is in the end what makes us human. While most of us try to hide our fears from others – in reality - sharing our fears is probably what connects us most between humans as we share the vulnerability that we often try to put aside. Helen shared me a bit of hers at the doorstep of a hostel as we had only known each other for 10minutes and its what to me made her a genuine person. If vulnerability is the greatest measurement of courage, then those who talk about them and confront their fears are probably the bravest… “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”- quote left by Mireille (from Holland) in Bali.
I met Mireille in a hostel in Bali and as we went for lunch one day she let me in on what she really wanted to study - which was the science of happiness. Her next stop in Thailand was going to offer courses at the mahidol university on exactly that. But more than a university, Thailand is also a place packed with travellers. She concluded that day that maybe travelling was for her the best way to understand what happiness was for others ; as the pursuit of happiness happens in many forms, no traveller ever went out in the world to seek unhappiness. He goes out in the world to find a sharper definition of what it means to him, and how to obtain it. And maybe in the end this is why our connections with fellow travellers are always much more meaningful than in our "other" lives – because as we all seek to go after what makes us happy – it changes us and makes us connect deeper with people who are looking for the same…So sometimes I wonder - why only limit ourselves to seeking happiness in travel – if we could be doing it back home – if that is in the end what makes us connect deeper as humans…? Diego Sebastian :
“Hay situaciones en la vida donde pequeños momentos generan grandes historias” "There are situations in life where small moments generate big stories" -Tienes fuego? -Si… I met Diego one night in Madrid at 3am as I was sitting on a bench in Tirso de Molina having a cigarette. Like many of the encounters you did in this city, some lasted the time of a question and an answer – and others lasted hours into the night. This one was one that drifted; and it were these little encounters that I loved so much about this city. What usually triggered it all, was that one word you pronounced, that one sentence you said, or sometimes even that one look you gave. In our case, Diego noticed I had a blank look, and he asked about it. While we tottered into more intimate details about our lives, he spoke of the healing nature of some of the very physical massages he learned in India, while I stared at him with subtle disbelief. But Diego will probably never know, that after that night, as he hugged me goodbye as old friends would and cracked my back to show me but an example – my backed snapped, and so did something in me. Days later I found myself running out of a show only to cry for no good reason. Like a side-effect waiting to happen, I let it all out when I least suspected it. And it became a wake up call that some emotions, no matter how much we judged them, needed a time and place to come out. Even out of small encounters like this one. “I may not be crazy, but I might just be the lunatic you’re looking for…”
With a head half-shaved, a bit of color, three dreadlocks hanging from behind and a braid somewhere in between – Zenia’s haircut seemed as adventurous and fluid as she was. Travelling through Madrid alone only for two days – it took us very little time before we asked her to join us to a concert and into the night with my friends. What meeting Zenia made me reflect on, is that while travelling, we often forget that somewhere in the world, we are also “locals” to others. So as we all try hard when travelling to mix with locals or at least encounter friends – I wondered in turn: “If I am the local, what makes me open my home to travellers?” And the answers lied somewhere in her quote; I once read that finding friends is like finding the same type of lunatics around. What Zenia shared was her willingness to say yes, no judgement in her eyes, and genuine curiosity for the people she encountered. But most of all, she had an edge. The kind of edge that makes you want to learn more about her, and in return offer a piece of the life you live. Because that is after all the best “local” experience you can give. My only advice would be then, to be that kind of “lunatic” when you’re on the road – act as freely, curiously, peacefully and non-judgemental as possible – because that aura is bound to make you encounter the friends you want and finally, the kind of experience you’re looking for. |
"Last words for the Road" by Lauren KlarfeldBook-in-the-making : A collection of hand written quotes left by the people I met on the road (7 years and running) Archives
July 2021
Categories |