Wanderlust

Maybe I was weaned early from breast milk. Maybe it’s genetic. Maybe it’s all those books I read about ‘elsewhere’. Maybe I was born when the constellation Scorpius was under the direct influence of Mercury. Maybe I’m the incarnation of a Byronic poem. Or maybe I’m a descendant of Cain and share his curse…

“You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”

I feel like I inherited a part of Cain’s disposition. I’m never content to stay where I am. I’m always on the wrong continent, no matter what continent I’m in. As soon as I start to get comfortable in one place, I become obsessed with going to another. If this was a curse, give me more of it!

Constantly and consistently, I seek out new opportunities to get out into the world…it’s like I have this greedy lust to travel.

Even when I’m at home, I feel the urge to go…beyond. I was leaving class at UBC one day, and instead of going to the bus loop to go home, I ended up walking to Wreck Beach during a cold day (i.e., no nude people). I then followed the shoreline until I was out of Point Grey. After five hours of rock, sand and owwies, I found myself in Granville Island where I got hungry, ate-all-I-can, and then finally took the bus home. I’m honestly traveling even when I’m not traveling.

I wanted to give you a glimpse of the amazing chaos that goes on in my head everyday. It’s basically a long list of my future adventures…but I don’t wanna bore anyone so I’m giving you pictures pictures and more pictures.

I wanna trek the Himalayas and climb Mt. Everest. It’s the tallest mountain. How can I not? Take into account that the region is very beautiful. Nepal…Bhutan…

It always amazes me how humans, being physically disadvantaged compared to other animals in many ways, are able to survive the most extreme environments...

I want to trek the Sahara desert from Egypt up to Morocco once while travelling with a camel caravan of nomadic tribes such as the Bedouin or the Tuareg...

I also want to explore the exact antithesis of one of the Sahara...the Arctic and the Antarctic. Ice diving would be niiiice...

For my next adventure, I want to follow the Amazon jungle, through the Andes and into Peru. I want my last stop to be Machu Picchu.

...Then I have this weird kinda adventure in my head...You know how some people like to take cruises? I want to circumnavigate the world on a ship with blue sails. I want to go scuba diving in every ocean. I wanna dive with so many animals...dolphins, which are one of my two favourite animals...whale sharks, the most enigmatic fish in the world...blue whales, before they become extinct...

Alright, I just finished writing an Oceanography essay and I have a lot of pictures that were just going to waste so here they are.

Those are just a few of the things I wanna accomplish before I die. I refuse to die until I’ve done all of those things…actually, I refuse to die until I’ve done all but one of those things, and then during the last one, I’m allowed to die. Haha.

But those are just my short-term adventures (by short-term I mean less than a year). I wanna move around the world…a lot. I wanna keep Vancouver as my permanent residence because it's just wonderful here.

Anyway, here are the top five places I wanna live in.

1) Greece - This country is perhaps the most deeply rooted in my childhood. When I was around seven or eight, a book called Classical Greece fell of my dad’s shelf and I started reading it and almost 12 years later, I'm speaking Greek and majoring in Archaeology. I always wanted to see the Greek light which apparently falls more beautifully in Greece than in other places. It’s a clash between the east and the west, giving it a distinct flavour. It’s a colliding point between the solemn hum of the decaying past, and the tumultuous din of modern nightspots. The terrain is rugged and just plain beautiful but it’s even more amazing how human civilization just dealt with it…



2) Austria - When I was in grade 1, I saw the Sound of Music and since then I’ve been obsessed with at least one musical at any given time. Anyway, the Sound of Music was filmed in Salzburg, which is an absolutely gorgeous city near the Alps. And as mentioned in previous blogs, I love mountains. Salzburg is 300 km away from Vienna. Also another gorgeous city, with a very strong artistic history. I also wanna get my PhD at the University of Vienna because most of the research material I find for my specialization seems to come from there. It’s amazing where childhood experiences lead.



3) Tanzania - I’m very attracted to the prospect of living in Africa and not just for a short visit. Tanzania, in particular, has the most political stability in the immediate region—with a growing economy—so it seems like the best choice. The sheer natural beauty is unsurpassed…Mt. Kilimanjaro (I’m obviously gonna climb it), the Great Rift Valley (which may be where humans first appeared), the Savannah. Maybe I'll finally get to meet real lions in the wild (lions are my other favourite animal)



4) Australia - It’s got kangaroos and koalas! What more could you want? Haha. Australia’s got a very laid-back outdoor lifestyle. It’s a very unique continent, having detached from the other continents 50 million years ago. Everything, from the terrain to the flora and fauna and even the people, is different.



5) France - Who wouldn't want to? It's frickin' beautiful! The landscape, the architecture, the food...everyone knows how much I like food. France has this sort of subtle beauty, like the lavender fields in Provence, and at the same time it has this stark magnificence, like Mont Blanc the highest mountain in Europe.

Everything I listed will come true...it's already started, 'coz I'm living in France until January. BOO YAH!

K, so here's the deal. I'm living in Avignon in Provence (Southern France) to take courses à l'Université d'Avignon...I guess taking 10 years of French actually did pay off. Anyway, Avignon is awesome. It's a Gothic citadel where the Popes used to live (when they were having a little tiff in Rome 1309-1377). It's absolutely wicked. They've got this gi-normous performing arts festival every July, and the location is just perfect. So here it is...

So here's Avignon from the Rhone river, facing the famous bridge, the Pont d'Avignon...


Here's the entrance to the Palace of the Popes...


...and here's a view from within the city streets.

Exciting, ain't it? That's one off the list...and my whole life left to go.