Blogs from Warwickshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 15

I think it's really starting to hit me that I am leaving very soon. Maddie and I spent the morning buying some bits and pieces for the trip, and a charity just came around to collect some of my furniture. My flat is looking emptier every day, and the cardboard boxes holding my travel bits grow constantly. It's all coming together at a rapid pace. Every day I give away pieces of furniture, paintings, objects, ideas, as well as pieces of myself. Some of these things I've had for years and it feels very peculiar to let go of them. Freeing in some way, but sad in another. It's a bit like a rite of passage, a mixed process of relief, grief, doubt, anticipation and exhilaration. Yesterday I cancelled my mobile phone contract, and that felt ... read more

Travelling light has always been one of my biggest challenges. As I write, I am nervously glancing at two big cardboard boxes stuffed full with things I am intending to take on my trip. They are big and heavy. And they don't even include clothing yet. When I started planning this trip, I thought everything would be straight-forward: walking boots, two pairs of trousers, two t-shirts, two fleeces, jacket, you get the picture. But no, then you're supposed take a medical kit, homeopathic remedies, mosquito nets, sleeping bag, water bottle, contact lens solution, towels, and all the suddenly necessary items that well-meaning friends and family furnish you with: an inflatable sink (fab idea though!), plastic plate & cutlery, a washing line. And never mind the things you really want to take: journal, books, ipod, light yoga ... read more

Apart from arranging visas, train tickets, travel insurance and vaccinations, I am currently devouring travel books by the kilo. A book that has really touched me recently in its profundity was Daniel Odier's 'Tantric Quest - An Encounter with Absolute Love'. It is set in the Himalayas and describes the author's quest in the late 1960's to find a tantric master who could help him where texts and intellectual searching could no longer take him. He discovered Shivaic tantrism, a spiritual path that seeks to transcend ego and rediscover the divine by embracing the passions. After many months of futile searching, he meets Devi, a great female yogi who agrees to teach him. It's a most fascinating and moving account on many levels. There is a passage that really spoke to me - one day, Devi ... read more

I've always been a restless person. My heritage determines it. By birth I am half-Sicilian, half German, and to complicate matters, my mother was born in the Czech Republic on the Polish border. All of these wonderfully different, opposing energies mingle inside me and occasionally create conflict! When I was 20, I left my native Germany for England, where I've now lived for the past fifteen years. I always travelled a lot, but primarily in Europe and the USA (i.e. The West). My first visit to a non-Western country was early this year, to Sri Lanka. And that visit set me off. I came back from Sri Lanka and sat on my sofa for about two weeks with an atlas, looking at all the places I wanted to visit. And soon after, the decision to embark ... read more

Since arriving in England, Adam and I have not ventured far from our home base of Leeds, having temporarily exhausted our travel itch with our European jaunts to date. So Adam’s suggestion of a weekend away to visit the home of the bard was a pleasant surprise to me. When he also casually mentioned he had concert tickets for a show in Birmingham on our Friday transit night, I eagerly agreed. Friday night several weeks later, I found myself in a concert hall with hundreds of black clad men and women, both sexes sporting scary makeup, watching a tired rocker shake his middle aged booty. It was one of those moments when all I could do was marvel at my surroundings and repeatedly ask myself… how on earth did I ever find myself at an Ozzy ... read more