So while I was sampling the cultural (and yes, culinary) delights of Argentina, the editor of my MFA program's alumni newsletter sent me an email asking if I'd do a write-up about my time in Buenos Aires. I emailed her back and said "Sure!" and she replied, "Great, can I have it by July 19?" and I answered back, "Sure!" and then I procrastinated until I had to ask for an extension, then procrastinated some more until the final deadline (yesterday), at which point I cranked it out in about an hour amid lots of last-minute panic.
And yet somehow I continue to persist in believing that I am not a Real Writer. Ha.
But anyway, during a brief interval when "procrastination" took the form of "brainstorming" for the article, I went online looking for cool quotes about travel, because every writer knows the value of starting off an article with a witty and/or insightful observation by someone else who is more famous. (In my case, of course, that's pretty much everyone.) I found a website with the 50 Most Inspiring Travel Quotes of All Time, #18 being this:
“To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” – Freya Stark
Which just goes to show you, even people more famous than you can end up veering out of "insightful" and into... well, silly.
Because let's be honest: The first thing that happens when you wake up in a strange town quite alone is, you try to go back to sleep so you don't have to face the fact that it is totally and completely and unavoidably on your own shoulders to figure out the agenda for the day. If by some chance you really just want to stay in bed "to relax", you will have to fight the guilt that will start whispering in your ear about how you are wasting an Amazing Travel Experience and that when you get home you will SO regret that you didn't do a lot of Exciting Tourist Things.
I don't know about you, but I wouldn't qualify any of the above as one of the "pleasantest sensations in the world."
But there is this: The sensation of knowing that, even though you're alone, you're somewhere you've never been. You're someplace new, different. And you yourself are different in that place. Or maybe just more yourself. There's none of the usual routine and distraction and same-old that gets in between you and your own soul. And OK, yes, that's actually kind of an uncomfortable sensation, but if you can live with it, (or live through it, as the case may be), you never know, you just might be rewarded.
And I imagine that could actually end up being pretty pleasant.
PS Oh by the way, I didn't end up using an inspiring travel quote for my article. I figured Real Writers should come up with their own, so here's mine, taken from the actual article I finally sent off to the newsletter editor:
Of course, I can’t write about being in Argentina and not mention the food. One word: Amazing. Two more: HUGE portions.
Why I'm not famous yet is beyond me.
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2 comments:
Love this. And that quote about waking up alone is completely obnoxious. Most pleasures I have experienced while alone traveling have been in spite of my solitary state, not due to it.
One of my favorite travel quotes comes from Jhumpa Lahiri's short story "The Third and Final Continent":
"Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination."
Now, now...let's put this in perspective. I am never alone...never. Let me tell you...the idea of waking up alone in a strange town with the entire day to myself sounds utterly delicious.
I would go back to sleep after first getting out of bed, doing a dance of joy that I have not been dragged out of my bed by hungry children at the crack of dawn. Sigh. Putting it in the right context...that quote totally works.
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