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Published: September 21st 2007
CZech keyboards... this is going to be very arduous to write, as I am in an internet cafe in Prague and have just about, after thirty minutes of desperate fiddling about, managed to work out how to type in my password for this blog. So bear with me as I try to decipher the rest of the code....
It is strange, but I feel like I have been away from home for five weeks, not five days. So much has happened in the last few days. I left London on Monday morning with the Eurostar to Brussels, and then took another train to Limburg in Germany, where I visited my parents for two nights. I have some incredible photographs of my father´s latest artwork and my parents latest religious installations in their home, but I will have to add some photographs next time around.
On Wednesday morning, my mother and I set off to Prague on the train, a journey that took us most of the day. It was an enchanting trip, gliding across the rails through wooded landscapes, past fairytale lakes, derelict buildings and beneath the waxing moon, withthe Czech language of the train officials seducing my ears.
Time takes on a different meaning when you travel in that way, there is a lightness of being as time melts into one big 'being in the moment', it stretches and contracts. Destination becomes an accidental bysyndrome, not important in itself. It is the journey that matters. Less poetically, travelling with family members is one big challenge to one's spiritual centredness! 😊 Mum, who is travelling with me for a week, and I are staying in a lovely old penthouse apartment in the old part of Prague, just beneath the castle, and tomorrow we are leaving for the mountains, where she was born, on the trail of our ancestors, and to celebrate Sunday's autumn equinox there. My mother's mother was Czech, and my mother was born in a small town near the Polish border, but she has not been back since the sixties. Both her parents died when she was four years old, so I have never met my grandparents, and I am very curious to learn more about that side of my family.
We spent most of today above Prague, in Vysehrad, the mythological birthplace of the city. From up there, you have a fantastic view all over Prague, and there is a big park area, and a prestigious cemetery in which many Czech artists are buried. Plus, my friend Antti Littmanen got engaged here! The weather here is beautiful, sunny and hot, and we spent the afternoon meandering around.
One thing I noticed about travelling is that there is a different intensity to my dreams = they are incredibly clear, memorable, and have much more depth to them. And I have two new best friends = my ipod, and the trolley that pulls my rucksack, apart from when it comes to the many Eastern European stairs. The top floor apartment we stay in has thrice as many stairs as my old flat in Clarendon Square, and no lift, and many of the railway stations have no elevators, and zillions of stairs. Thankfully there are many nice young helpful men around - sadly though, they are much more inclined to help my mother than me!
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Filippo
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Good Mabon!
Ehy Tiziana! I want to wish you a good Autumn Equinox! I'm happy to read you're having a good travel and you made two new best friends :D Let us know how your adventure continues! Hugs from Sicily! Filippo