Take My Breath Away

I'm saying this without rhyme or reason. Well, actually, that's a half truth. I'm saying it because I've just seen some of the most gorgeous pictures of South America from one (of too many friends) that have caught the travelling bug.

His pictures has taken my breath away.

I want to go.

I want to go, and lose myself in it all.

Being couped up in an office all day doesn't inspire me. Why I continue to try to squeeze a square peg into a round hole is beyond me. But, that's another story for another time.

Recently seeing Before Sunrise (filmed in Vienna), and Before Sunset (filmed in Paris), brought back a flood of some of the most unrivaled memories created in my cerebral cortex when I carried a feather weight 20 kg backpack across Central and Eastern Europe.

I smile as I summon the memories. The joy of wandering. Of discovering. Of recalling an experience where I fully embraced the beauties of a world (i.e. Europe) that prior to 2000 only existed in my imagination.

The people, the architecture, the food, the language, the history, the art. All of it. The dodgy backpacker hostels, the cold showers, being stuck in a lift, freezing legs at below zero temperatures, arriving in the wrong city, walking kilometers and kilometers on end, being caught without a valid train ticket. All of it. I loved it.

I loved it all.

To Mic, thank you for giving me your eyes to see what you are seeing, and to God for the beauty and mystery of memories.