People From Behind and Soaking It In

Consume, consume, consume. That’s often how I feel when I travel. I’m like a sponge soaking everything in. Swelling, swelling, swelling. Unaware of my own capacity. But as I’m consuming I have the irking feeling that I should be doing more. I should be breathing out as often as I’m breathing in. But someone please tell me how that works because it seems I can’t figure it out. Or maybe, I just have a different way. I am of the kind that opts to suck a big gulp in and dive down deep, taking a good look around at the bottom before I resurface for air.

And now you have caught me during the resurfacing moment. Shaking off the water, still fresh and soaking with new experiences. Drying off and re-entering normal, non-travel existence.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m babbling about, I spent the last month on the road. Traveling for the sake of traveling. The route looked like this:

Amsterdam>Istanbul>Tbilisi>Istanbul>Izmir>Antalya>Girne>Nicosia>Larnaca>Tel Aviv>Jerusalem>Tel Aviv annnd back to Amsterdam.

It was a month of seeing, seeing, seeing, not to mention, going, walking, eating, eating, eating (too much good food in these countries!), flying, busing, meeting new friends, and eating some more.

There was a trying hike to Buffavento castle in Cyprus and a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. There were several welcoming Couchsurfing hosts, and random meetings of people on the street. There was a road trip to Massada and the Dead Sea with some newfound friends that resulted in never actually touching the Dead Sea, but rather, being told to leave the private property of a disgruntled and impatient Israeli man. “Yalla, let’s go!” he said. There was the 5 shekel bar in Tel Aviv jammed with people eager to get their fill of cheap drinks before they headed out for the night. There were many subtle impressions and too many memorable moments with new people for me to properly summarize here. There were also exhausting moments, and moments of confounding frustration. Travel brings it all. And, of course, it all is taken in.

But I do want to unearth something from my experiences. I want to gain that illusive perspective and feel that transformative relief that comes from holding a new truth in your center. A truth that can only come from seeing something outside of your usual surroundings. I think this is the kind of truth that grounds us. But I can’t pick it out right now. I’m still floating in the water, trying to catch my breath.

And as I bob in the waves, trying to absorb the meaning or maybe steeping in the fact that there doesn’t have to be a meaning, I want to give you a glimpse into my past month with some People From Behind photos. There were so many great photo opportunities from these lovely countries I visited (and I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera..hello iPhone photos!). As I wonder about my recent travel memories, I hope that these photos can spark the same wonder in you and maybe inspire your own adventure, near or far.