Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” [Mark Twain]
on traveling
there are two fundamentally different forms of traveling. one is in a group, the other one alone. those who travel in a group are naturally distracted from the journey as compared to the solitary traveler who has nothing to do than to focus on his path. if we attach a purpose to traveling then we certainly have to make another differentiation between traveling for business and traveling for leisure, I think though that business travels do not count as traveling in my narrow sense of understanding. traveling in my understanding is not simply moving a body from A to B; traveling in my understanding is making some personal progress by moving a body from A to B. I have never had that experience when on a business trip, albeit I combined business and leisure traveling.
returning to the two initial two forms of traveling, I would like to argue in favor of both. traveling in a group to experience destinations of culture, history, civilization or natural beauty is a shared and thus enriched experience worth making. one can find and grow friends. one can exchange thoughts and broaden one‘s horizon together with the respective travel companions. traveling alone, no matter where to, is more something of an outer pilgrimage for the inner pilgrim. traveling alone is the preferred form in periods of doubt and question, between life phases, like a personal separation, death or a change of employer. Traveling alone brings me closer to God, nature, all that is, and paradoxically also to myself; traveling alone lifts my intuition. On the following subpages I will post some slideshows of extraordinary travel experiences. Let me know if you want travel advice to one of the destinations. More quotes on traveling to be found here.
returning to the two initial two forms of traveling, I would like to argue in favor of both. traveling in a group to experience destinations of culture, history, civilization or natural beauty is a shared and thus enriched experience worth making. one can find and grow friends. one can exchange thoughts and broaden one‘s horizon together with the respective travel companions. traveling alone, no matter where to, is more something of an outer pilgrimage for the inner pilgrim. traveling alone is the preferred form in periods of doubt and question, between life phases, like a personal separation, death or a change of employer. Traveling alone brings me closer to God, nature, all that is, and paradoxically also to myself; traveling alone lifts my intuition. On the following subpages I will post some slideshows of extraordinary travel experiences. Let me know if you want travel advice to one of the destinations. More quotes on traveling to be found here.
Often I feel I go to some distant region of the world to be reminded of who I really am. There is no mystery about why this should be so. Stripped of your ordinary surroundings, your friends, your daily routines, ...you are forced into direct experience. Such direct experience makes you inevitably aware of who is having the experience. That's not always comfortable, but it is always invigorating. [Michael Crichton]