I'm thinking of traveling today. It's always easier to think of the places you'd like to be when it's rainy and gloomy outside. Today would be a good day to curl up by a crackling fire, with a warm cup of coffee sweetened by hazelnut creamer and a good adventure book to escape the dreary rain. The rain is good, we need it. My poor cucumbers and zucchini need it. My shriveling petunias and marigolds need it. Maybe the rain is also good to remind us of places we want to go. It's so easy to get caught up in the every day life of get up, go to work, make dinner, play with puppy, pick up the house, go to bed. It's easy to get lost in the every day and forget there's more.
Traveling is good. Even if it is just to another state or to the next country over, such as the wonderful beautiful country of Canada. Going across an ocean offers things totally different from Canada or the States. Traveling offers so much more than sightseeing and really cool souvenirs. It offers so much more that. You learn culture from walking through markets. The country doesn't matter from Mexico to Bosnia-Hercegovonia to England. You see religious icons, food, clothing, their handiwork with jewelry and crafts. You learn culture through seeing their buildings whether massive cathedrals in Northern England that took hundreds of years to build or small houses in Mostar that were put up quickly out of necessity. You learn culture as you sit in a small cafe in Dobrovnik sipping slowly on your creamy espresso watching as other men gather for hours to talk over their small cups of coffee. There is so much you can learn from how other people communicate, how other cultures have learned to cope with horrific happenings such as war. Things you just can't learn here in the United States.
Restaurants and cafes in Mostar, Bosnia
that use up every inch of available space as
effectively as possible along the river
Bombed house that was never rebuilt due to
continuing political and religious tensions
between Serbs and Croatians
Mostar Bridge,
rebuilt after it was bombed out in the war
I think the United States has a lot offer and a lot of culture to learn too. The South is very different from the Pacific Northwest. Texas is a whole different ball game compared to Maine. Yet, I still think traveling to other places is important. The leftovers of war cannot be felt the same way in the States as Bosnia where you pass bombed out buildings and apartments with bullet marks adding to the architecture. It's just different (the kind of different that is hard to put into words) and makes you appreciate the country you get to live in a whole heck of a lot more. You just have to go somewhere else before you realize the true significance.
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