“Wherever you go, go with all your heart”
– Confuscius

I am not awake with excitement. My eyes are struggling to stay open the one time I need them to. The nights I spent uselessly scanning social media into the small hours, time passes so quickly. The hours are slow this morning at Perth International Airport.

My destination is London. Not glittering, nor golden; but special. It’s not special because it’s summer, nor because I will see friends, or because it is a chilly winter in Perth.

London will be special because I am going with my whole heart; not to escape, but enjoy. I do not have any formal plans for this trip, which terrifies my logical brain(!) I booked this trip on a whim (even when I was packing it still didn’t feel really real that I was going), but as I tap away at my iPad to widen my closing eyelids, I am finally making the connection that I am going to be travelling to the other side of the world, to another Hemisphere, Timezone, Continent and face first into another culture.

Therein lies the buzz of travel. Somewhere and something completely different – physically being away from the familiar. I very willingly submit to that, makes me kind of a geo(graphical) junkie.

What is special about 11 days in London?

I know I am doing it for myself; I swept aside any doubts and acted – “why would you go for only 11 days?”
“why not?
In the wake of attending 3 funerals in the first half of this year, I decided to travel. I only had 11 days, but I was determined to get to London. Uluru and New Zealand proved too expensive and not fully worthwhile, unfortunately. There is a deep sense of self-mastery with travel, however it treads a fine line with escapism. I admit to 3 trips of mine, overseas and interstate, being in reaction to some kind of unfortunate event.
I chose this trip with my whole heart; yes there was sadness, but I chose this trip above panicking about how much it would cost me in dollars.
This trip will give me some really special experiences.

It sounds mad, another hemisphere for 11 days. It is, but not for the adventurous. When I said “why not?” to the people who raised an eyebrow at the cost and time, they couldn’t give me a reply to that. Which is more of a reason to do it. Some things are worth doing!! And this is mine.

Travel isn’t just about the mode of transport, it’s not always the journey or the movement. It’s about where you stop, what makes you stop. Like the Eiffel Tower at night, like a sandwich in a park with a friend, or when a stranger helps you with your suitcase.

Just do it. Life is for living.
All I’ll say.

“For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.”
– Leonardo da Vinci

Maybe not the family next to me whose son spilled hot chocolate across the table and on to their hand luggage……. (!!)

Hope you enjoyed reading (at a more reasonable hour than when this was published!) as much as I enjoyed writing.

A x