Contemplation of an adventure...

I wanted to start this blog with a wonderful quote about travelling...about the virtues...about the real value...in the end I see how much I look forward to the motion of the journey. It isn't about arriving at a final destination...it is about the true picture of different lands, cultures, beliefs and ideologies that are fatal to the thought of being a close-mindset braggart. You feel something when you touch the soil...it could be aversion...it could be wonder...it could be seeing the differences and seeing the similarities.

However, what you really see is raw humanity. Sure I can enjoy the sights, the foods, the wines...but what I am not able to ever get bored with are people. People from all walks of life...that are on their own journeys...and there is something that happens to people when they travel...they forget themselves.

As with any dream, vision, or purpose you state for your life, I have come across this tantalizing prospect, which happens to come across at just the right time. I am at that point in my time in Korea where I had to start solidifying my next journey. My next destination will be Prague. I am trying very hard to keep my focus here in South Korea. There are things about Korea I will always treasure, but like a lover with the roving eye, my eyes have trouble focusing when I think about staying put for any significant amount of time. I keep thinking about how a person is only allotted so much time, and while I am able bodied enough, I need to live my life in one year increments. I threw away my 3, 5, and 10 year plans...because I realized I wasn't enjoying my life living that way. Time went too fast, and before I knew it...twenty years came and went in a flash. I have slowed down my life to savor it.

So my lust for life has propelled me to my planning stage.

I was going about planning my travels to Prague, with everything just about set, I fell into a state of dreading the flight. I thought about the long flight and thought to myself how it was going to be great once I got to Prague...but there was this twinge...this unbearable thought of how much of a waste it was to fly to Prague. I looked at the air route and found myself wishing for a road trip...to really see everything...but in a way where I wouldn't be weary. Though there would be time saved in travel...who wants to say they just flew over China, Russia, and a number of other countries...I wanted to see more than the cloud banks...I wanted to be there...to run across those that would go to the end of the line.

As soon as I saw the map...I realized it is something I just have to do. There really isn't any other choice for me...I have to do this trip. To not do this trip, well, it would be like ignoring my nature. I could feel all of the images of the types of people I would see, and there was something nostalgic about riding on a train...I could already feel my imagination getting ahead of myself. Far beyond an Ian Fleming or Agatha Christie novel...
My goal in life has been to travel the world...to go as many places as possible...and to somehow do it while in the process of living an everyday life. This journey will shrink my list down suitably...and leave me smiling, and drinking in the History of the ancients as I go along.

So I will be bringing in the new year some where in Russia...travelling for two weeks by rail...even though I could do it in one. Ah, there is a part of me that has always wanted to say, "From Russia, With Love"...but for now it's from Daegu, where today is Children's Day and Summer is just around the corner.