Thoughts on travelling and time distortion issues

Friday 24 September 2004, 20:00 Turkey time

It's interesting how much evolution can occur in a few short days. It's been enough time for me to form one opinion of a country, get really sick with two different ailments (first the food poisoning, then a cold/flu), lose several kilograms, form a contrary opinion of the same country, and even fall out with people then reconcile differences, all while wasting hundreds of dollars on global roaming charges. Five days is, indeed, a long time.

On the subject of time, since I am still sick and hence procrastinating on launching into a full description of the last few days, it is interesting how time warps when you are travelling.

- 10 weeks ago, I was at home listening to MP3s and reading travel sites.
- Two months ago, I was in Hawaii, just arrived from Auckland.
- One month ago, I was in Quebec City.
- Two weeks ago, I was ın Vienna.
- One week ago, I had just arrived in Istanbul from Beograd.

The first three seem like sometime last year! I'm not even sure that I remember what my room looks like. In two weeks and two days time, that won't matter anyway. In twelve weeks of travelling, I will have seen a fairly wide swathe of the world, and more importantly met my original goal of not only seeing a place but developing an understanding of the people and cultures that I meet. I hope that my blog has perhaps, for some people, helped to shatter a few stereotypes - be they positive or negative - about some of the countries I have been in. I am thinking particularly of Serbia as I write this, but when I get around to it, I hope it may also apply to Turkey. This really is a great country with a rich cultural heritage and a great sense of humour, but you really do have to leave Istanbul to find it.

Travelling has given me a sense of independence that I never had even when living by myself and managing my own affairs. I needed something to give me self confidence. Surviving this hectic and at times crazy journey was the affirmation I needed. I am capable of things that I hadn't even considered before, and in seeing how I survive so far outside my comfort zone, I know I can do so much better when back in it again in Perth.

Final thought for the night is on who you travel with. You can either travel by yourself, with friends, with family or with a random tour group. To each their own - I do manage best by myself. Even with friends, I feel that it somehow limits me, even if only psychologically, as I need to take their preferences and limits into account. With a tour group, you always feel under pressure to get on with people, and those people may not feel any need to get on with you, especially if they have made friends elsewhere in the group who are easier to understand, whether because of commonality or circumstance. Even in a group of 11 there are times when one can feel intense loneliness - even more so than when by yourself in a country where noone speaks your language.

I will update properly in the next couple of days. This Turkish language keyboard is pissing me off and on Win98 you need an OS disk to add the option for Ingilizce.