In Cairo I bid adieu to sister #1 and flew to Madrid to visit sister #2 who is teaching English at a Spanish secondary school.
Since this is a blog about travel, and travel revelations, I want to explain one “revelation” I’ve had lately about travel: it increases the imagination.
Once upon a time, I used to shy away from books set in other countries because, from the vantage point of my all-American upbringing, it was difficult to imagine what things like abject poverty and war looked like.
It was even more difficult to to imagine that these types of characteristics could coexist simultaneously in a place with things like compassions and generosity.
I think it was India that most challenged my world view and, in doing so, shoved my imagination into new domains. After being in India I now feel that I can imagine almost anything.
I haven´t really made an itinerary for my time in Europe. I want the freedom to follow my intuition about a place and to go where I please. But I find that I have a penchant for the less traversed parts of the globe. People say to me, “You´re in Europe. You´ll be wanting to visit France, England, and Italy, right?”
Yes. But I’d rather see Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary.
I like places that people don´t necessarily know a lot about. I like places that require people to consult an atlas in order to figure out where they are located. I like going to places that I have only a vague, usually inaccurate, preconceived notion about and having my worldview altered.
So, the general direction I’ll be heading to after Spain is eastern Europe and the Balkan peninsula.
Jamón
