I’m reading ”The Lover’s Dictionary”, and Levithan uses the phrase geographies of wandering, how he took the ‘you’ in the novel to Seattle, San Francisco, taught her to appreciate it. And it got me thinking. Why do I do it? This traveling. Why?
Is it just about the list? Sometimes, that’s what it feels like. I’ve been to 35 countries in my life now. There are a couple among the people that I know that would probably beat me, like dad and Hannes, but not many. In that sense, this eurotrip of mine was an big success. Seven new countries in 38 days.
But there are other things that I like about traveling too. I like parks. Libraries and narrow streets. Food. Getting lost, but with the safety of a map in my back pocket. Finding new things about myself in places where I’ve never been before. Perfect moments. Meeting new people to share those perfect moments with.
This past trip has had all of that, but there has also been the list. Maybe too much of the list. I didn’t plan it like that, it just turned out that way. There was so much I wanted to do, and, in the end, too little time. Some of the places I visited, I did not at all feel done with. Münich, Budapest, Zagreb. Sarajevo.
Next trip, I’ll have to plan for more planlessness. Time to get lost. Exploring the geographies of wandering.
Katja Malmborg 