While being
accosted by peddlers shoving the same paper beads and woven baskets in my face
during a visit to a bustling tourist market in Kenya, I caught myself
re-visiting an unwelcome thought. Why do
humans feel so compelled to travel and “see the world”? If the sense of
adventure, uncertainty, and pure recklessness that once adorned this art during
times of old has now been replaced by the careful, calculated measures of
technology, what is it, then, that still necessitates that we leave our homes,
our family, our “southern comfort zone”, and drop several hundred (or
thousand…) dollars on a flight across the globe? If these same “hand-carved”
salad tongs are available in Kenya, Uganda, and Cameroon, right down to the
giraffe decorations, and my friends can see my Facebook pictures that carefully
detail my sojourning before I myself can even find a reliable source of
internet, then why put in all that unnecessary leg work?
Fortunately,
the ludicrousness of this thought that shook me to the core of my very identity
eventually passed, I can’t say that I’ve comfortably arrived at an answer. I
can say, with absolute certainty, that there is simply something about being there, wherever “there” may be,
that can never be captured in a book, on Google, on Facebook, or through the
lens of a camera. Maybe it’s the unexpected smell of a street in Madrid at 4 am
just before it’s had its daily pressure-washing, or the killer slope of a
volcano in New Zealand that leaves your knees throbbing, or the fine layer of
sweat that is a part of life amidst the lush backdrop of rural Nicaragua in the
rainy season, but there is definitely a concrete something that makes us
continue to seek out the clandestine thrill of travel.
As this new
“ASK” question relates to our city of Belgrade, I am looking forward to being
rocked to sleep by our hostel-boat, traipsing around the city on a walking
tour, and feeling the sand of the local “beach” (different from Florida standards)
sift between my fingers. As someone who lived in a beach town for the majority
of my life, I am acutely aware of how proximity to water can change one’s whole
outlook on life. Although Serbia is landlocked, Belgrade is located right on
the Danube. And besides that, the former Yugoslavia was in fact located on the
Yugoslav peninsula, meaning that it was mostly surrounded by water. Sure, water
provided access to the obvious trade routes and, probably, war routes, but I
wonder what more of a role it played in the lives of the ancient people of the
area? Did the Danube provide livelihoods? New recipes? A calming respite?
Religious inspirations? Precursory internet searches will get you only so far.
This is definitely something I hope to keep in mind during our travels,
particularly regarding a topic so near and dear to my heart.
Two side
notes to my monologue: 1) Dr. Crawford, I owe you a blog post regarding the
local food in the region, what it is, how it came to be here, how it was
influenced by surrounding cuisines, etc. Food is probably my second favorite
things, and is not to be overlooked! But in all honesty, while endless research
of ingredients I’ve never heard of and can’t pronounce isn’t all that appealing,
while we are abroad be cognizant of your tastes, what seems familiar and what
is new altogether. From the dinner we had on Friday at Angela’s apartment, I’ve
noticed some ties to Greek recipes and ingredients. I am looking forward to
investigating the matter firsthand.
And 2):
wordiness noted, will make a more concerted effort to get to the point in the
future! Hopefully this at least provided some of y’all with some sort of
inspiration to not get bogged down in the nitty-gritty military details and
history of the area. Unless, of course, you’re in to that sort of thing!
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