It is apt that Facebook memories unearthed the following 7-year-old treasure from my life on the very day when I had already designed this new travel blog and was sitting in front of an empty page wondering how to start it:
At the time that I made this video, I had recently returned from four months in Jerusalem and it seemed like absolutely the most urgent thing in the world not to lose the feelings I had there. Every day that lengthened the time between my present and the last time I'd looked over that golden, gleaming city of my namesake seemed like another snap of the threads that bound me to it. Like performing a play on its closing night and knowing that each line you say will be the last time you ever have to say it. Your brain won't need to keep remembering those words, but a part of you hoped to keep them forever.
I didn't want to no longer need to remember the walking route from where we slept at night to the Old City of Jerusalem. I didn't want the names of the city gates to no longer be important to keep in my memory, didn't want to forget the exchange rate or the familiar faces or the constant balancing act that is walking every day on slick, Jerusalem lime stone. I couldn't get through the script of the narration without crying and I decided to just let it happen and leave it immortalized that way. A record of how much it truly meant to me.
And now it's been seven years.
I've traveled a great deal since then, made it my full time priority to find a way to do so, and even been back to Jerusalem once or twice. It continues be my soul's city, enticing to me in a very singular way, though I have since cried to say goodbye to other places too.
That's why I'm starting this blog, I guess. To preserve the poignancy and the joy and the humor and tears of my travel experiences while they're still fresh, rather than grasping for what it meant to me then, seven years on.
I also hope that someone, someday will read something here that will push them from merely dreaming about a trip to putting the first fiver aside for it. It really does start with that initial drop in the bucket and soon you find yourself buying a plane ticket and then standing in a place you've only heard of and smelling it and tasting it and seeing it all for yourself.
The exhilaration of that sensation is something I've never really been able to shake, so I guess I'm deciding not to shake it, but share it instead.
I recently returned from Costa Rica (which I will no doubt write something about) and am currently planning trips to the UK (next week), Spain, and Tanzania, and I invite you to come along. I'll also write posts on my favorite destinations from past trips and welcome any interest in adding to this blog as a guest.
Until next time, Pennypinchers. Travel on!
