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The Pleasures of Travelling


People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, 
the kind of people they ignore at home. 

                                                                                                           -Dagobert D. Runes

Much has been said about travelling, about how it exposes us to a new culture, reveals endlessly a series of bright and beautiful sights that one could never find at home, how it reawakens in us a sense of childish curiosity and awe and reignites the explorer in our soul. And so it goes on and on.

The atmosphere these thoughts create is in itself extremely exciting. One can probably go delirious deciding where to go and what to do there, even before one has already been there. And when we finally arrive at our destination, the novelty of it all culminates in a visual orgasm, one after the other. “Waah, so nice!” is heard for the umpteenth time. Out comes the camera and the building is photographed from all 360 degrees and uploaded onto Facebook for the pleasure of the deprived at home. And before our eyes truly settle on the sight, we are off again, to our next destination. Our behaviour strangely resembles camels drinking huge amounts of water in face of an extended period without it. We gulp as many places as we can, because once home, travelling is too expensive, or assumed to be so. Therefore cramming so many places within a short period allows us to draw on the bliss of memory at some later boring point in our lives.

Besides, there is nothing much to explore or learn back home. Just a bunch of multi-coloured people with their occasionally noisy festivals and practises that we are used to by now. The museums and parks, well, that’s more for the tourists and the retired. Besides why care? I have been to Paris, I have been to Amsterdam, I have been to Berlin. What is ‘thank you’ in German? Well, it does not matter; the Germans understand English. Why are there the ‘xxx’ signs all across Amsterdam? Probably has to do something with all the sex and the porn around. And the Italians who were living with me in my dorm, well, they seemed nice, but I did not have any time to talk to them.

Because you see, I am a traveller.

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