|
...And what I've experienced
|
Seth Familian
|
Aug 14, 2001 16:59 PDT
|
Hi again!
That last note was really just meant to catch you up on where I've been
and what I've been doing these past two weeks, and here I'd like to go
into a bit more detail about 1) why it's taken me so incredibly long to
write since last time, 2) how my trip has turned out as a whole and
finally 3) what I think about it all (well, so far, at least).
So first off, why has it taken me so long to write since Cadiz? My
previous e-mails came to you on an almost consistent weekly basis, their
energy, enthusiasm, and descriptive vigor growing--or at least getting
more opulent--with each note. But since then, there has been a lag, a
two week delay. Why? It's not like things haven't been *happening* in
my life or my travels haven't been interesting or worth sharing since
those first days in Cadiz (that should've been clear enough from the
sheer length of my last note). But a change did in fact occur between
my time in Spain and elsewhere. Once I got to London, I didn't really
feel like I was Backpacking anymore. Sure, I was traveling, but I was
being put up by my incredibly generous family friends, was being coddled
by them as well as by family and other friends, and life became
incredibly easy. Same with Ireland: I had a place to stay, someone to
always hang out with, no real logistics to figure out; it was easy. And
fun! (It's not like London or Ireland weren't fun--far from it!) But
still, my time post-Spain was much easier than before, which really
affected my outlook and energy as a traveler.
When I was on the road, literally sweating to find a place to stay every
four days or so, making lunch from market-bought veggies and cheese and
always being forced to make conversations, to push away any shyness or
hesitation and make friends, speak in spanish, or wander down some wierd
side street, I was constantly compelled to produce artistically in every
facet: to photograph like mad, to sribble pages upon pages in my
journal, and to write to all of you. Pretentious as this may sound,
being on the road, alone, really forced me to be my most artistically
creative. And it was wonderful! I had this absolute energy and
attention to detail that made me a precise and purposeful observer as
well as an active participant in what went on around me. But once I
stepped away from all of that, once I tossed my backpack along the
queen-size bed and in the private room with marble-laden bath that would
be mine for a few days, the energy faded. I felt less like a lone
traveler, and more like a visitor, a guest. And so rather than engage
in conversations at every streetcorner or scribble notes in my journal
at every opportunity, I held back.
Then a few days into this cycle, I caught myself. I had a night in
London before heading back to Los Angeles, and so I decided to sit down
at a computer and crank out the final e-mail for Part I of my travels.
But when I went to write it, I couldn't. The words didn't flow. I
found myself stuck on paragraph one, stumbling over sentences and
syntax, paying way too much attention to what I was writing rather than
just writing it. So, frustrated and tired, I printed out the halfpage
of jumbled and somewhat boring prose, and went to sleep. Then I
traveled, and traveled, and traveled--almost halfway around the world
and for nearly a full day--until I arrived in Los Angeles and felt at
home, felt no need to write. And so it went for another few days. I
went to Sun Valley and then briefly to New York, used the time to
unwind, to think about why, exactly, all of this had happened, and now,
sitting at a computer lab in the basement of my freshman year dorm (more
on that later), I write to you all once again.
So now that I've finally put pen to paper (or, more appropriately,
fingers to keyboard) once again, and since the first part of my trip has
pretty much drawn to a close, perhaps I ought to sketch out what my trip
looked like as a whole and how I think it all went. First, for your
amusement (or at least mine), an abbreviated list of some of the
highlights of the past two months:
Time spent traveling: 8 weeks
Cities visited: 22 (in Europe)
Countries visited: 9
Flights flown: 7
Boats bobbed upon: 1
Trains traveled in: Way too many
Books read: 1.5
Photographs taken: Digital: ~600; Film (b&w): ~800 (no joke)
Pages written in journal: ~150
Music festivals attended: 3
Friends made: Innumerable
Acquired: Turkish bongo drum, Turkish evil eye, Turkish sun screen and
aloe vera gel, seemingly good Austrian deodorant, books from an Austrian
bookstore, a knack for changing the language layout of any keyboard in
the world to English, duct tape from a Spanish hardware store (long
story), 3 bottles of Spanish wine, 3 bottles of Spainsh olive oil, 1
bottle of Spanish Jerez (sherry), misc. guidebooks, 1 pierced ear, large
inflatable Irish Y2K celebration hammer (came in very handy).
Abandoned: Extra, unnecessary pages of guidebooks (thank you duct tape),
completed books, unfortunately crappy Austrian deodorant.
Lost: Camera bag hand strap, duct tape (that's why I had to get more).
Stolen: Nothing! (at least nothing to my knowledge)
Okay, so 1400 photos, 150 pages, and a whole bunch of other things (both
good and bad) later, I'm really only left with my thoughts, my
perspective, and that incessant need to write it all down so I can at
least retain SOME of what I've experienced. What have I taken away from
all of this thus far? Well first off, that it's really only the
beginning of an incredible year. This trip, cool and exciting as it
was, was nonetheless something like a practice trip, a warm-up for more
exotic locales and complex situations. I used my time in Europe not
only to visit places I'd never been to and really wanted to see, but
also to figure out what it would be like to travel alone, what things
I'd ACTUALLY need for traveling and what else I could (thankfully) leave
behind. (A funny aside about the "using my time in Europe to figure out
what to bring and leave behind" thing is that by the time I got to my
family friends' apartment in London I was so sick of carrying around the
extra, useless things in my pack that the first thing I did upon walking
through their door was to race through my pack, pull out everything that
I knew I didn't need, and put my pack on once again, totally relieved at
the weight I was able to shave off. I know, a bit weird, but that's
what happens when you carry around extra stuff for so long!)
But beyond the "practice trip" thing, I've realized how important this
time has been (and will continue to be) for me and my various interests
(writing, photography, annoying people with ridiculously long e-mails).
As I mentioned earlier (and can't say enough, I guess), traveling and
particularly traveling alone has really pushed me to be creative, to SEE
the world by foot, through a lens, and with a pen in hand, and so has
shown me a part of this planet--and a part of myself--that I've just
never been exposed to before. And so far, that specific experience has
been totally remarkable, unparalleled in anything else I've done,
whether in school or in a summer or anywhere else.
To wrap things up (since I know this e-mail, like the last one, is
getting a bit long-winded), I'd like to reassure you that even with all
the "stuff" I'm producing from my travels (whether it's long-winded
e-mail, thousands of photos, or pages upon pages of scribbled, probably
indecipherable prose), this is still both "work" in a sense and total
fun! The reason I say this is NOT to drive home to all my
contemporaries how remarkable my own experience is and to therefore
marginalize theirs (really, guys, I'm just not like that, and besides,
this IS really hard work, believe it or not), but rather because most if
not all of you on this list know me pretty darn well, and so know how I
tend to stress about things, tend to be "type-A" about most things in
life. For example, upon relating a lot of what I've said in this e-mail
to a good friend of mine last night, he responded not with enthusiasm
but instead concern: "why don't you just take a vacation from your
vacation," he pleaded.
And so what I tried to explain to him, over the course of the next hour
or so, and so have tried to convey to you, in the couse of way too many
paragraphs, is that while all of this is indeed tough work, I really
truly LOVE it. It's like that way too overplayed Thoreau expression:
"make your living by loving." That's exactly what I'm doing right now,
and hopefully it reflects in the words I write and the images I capture
on film.
Thanks so much for putting up with me and my uncanny combination of
wordiness and an almost obsessive need to communicate almost all that
has gone on in my travels these past two months, and I hope you'll stick
around and read up on me as I continue with parts II and III of my
journey. Just fyi, I'm in Cambridge right now helping out Harvard with
its First-Year Outdoor Program (FOP), and after that's all over (by the
beginning of September), I'm back in La, printing photos, researching
routes, and enjoying some downtime until I head off to South America in
the middle of October. I'm going to take a bit of a hiatus from the
weekly updates until I start traveling once again, but I promise to keep
you updated on new photos that get posted (I hope to have almost all of
my Europe stuff up by tonight) as well as on the progress of my website,
which will combine the photos with others you haven't seen and some
narrative as well.
Thanks once again for lending me your ear and candidly writing back, and
I look forward to writing travel updates to you all once again in the
very near future!!
take care,
Seth
|
|
 |
|
