How to Travel Through Urban Landscapes with a Camera in Your Hand
I’ve never bought into the big travel gig. I simply desired to meet lots of new people — and learn about who they are. So I bought a Camera.
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I’m an introverted type. I’ve always sought new places within the mind.
Pathways of thought that lead away from mundane routines, then carry us across plains and valleys to fresh ideas. Books, other people’s ideas, well formulated and written down as an experience, to share with people like you and me, that’s travelling. That’s being in motion.
Non-Fiction and Fiction, alike, both offer the recorded human experience that we can learn from, we glean new ideas that lead to new ground.
I’ve travelled by hook or by crook around some parts of Europe. Thumbing lifts from Bavaria to France late at night in the teeming rain. I took the milk-train to Switzerland on a 10 Deutschmark ticket, and arrived exhausted. After umpteen line changes, being backed into a shunting yard — and not told the train terminates here. A dark little village with no connections.
Then back to the thoughts that moved my boots, and motivated me to stick my trusty thumb out again and hitch a lift to the next big town.
That worked, except, the lift I got was on the electric village milk float, we whined our way through the village, the milkman stopping for deliveries, and happy to have my unexpected company early in his shift. A two-hour ride through the misty morning vistas of a village that remains unknown to me.
Later that day, a series of Mini Coopers, VW vans with painted flowers, and Opel Mantas took me piece meal across the countryside to my destination.
Finally, back on the fast-moving train to Switzerland. The countryside became a blur of green, yellow, and blue, reminding me of a smeared canvas of oil…
