What is "slow" travel and why is it a good idea for the holidays
"A man is a man when he's on the road!"
Even if we strip away the famous pathos of the ageless wisdoms - sedentariness and static are part of the life of monuments and sculptures - epic, eccentric, dreamlike, but somehow - forever static!
For us who live, movement remains - as a way to express ourselves, to search, to lose ourselves in various searches and ultimately - to find ourselves in them.
And yes - make no mistake, it is difficult to find ourselves in the history of another's path. We can be inspired, we can be excited, we can dream... We can even learn from stories everything about the habits and the "little" rituals in some far-away country, but, alas, we will find nothing about ourselves in this story - nothing about the fears and the things that make us smile, about the limits of our own powers, nor about the limits of our dreams! :)
"Paris is beautiful in the morning! In the afternoon Paris is charming! In the evening Paris is enchanting! But after midnight Paris is magical!"
And these are not words, but the emotions behind them, the flirting and Woody Allen's personal romantic history with the city of chansons.
Now think about it, or put on a movie of his and watch carefully... People don't run from one cathedral to another monument with a map and a camera in their hand, they don't bargain for souvenirs and wait in line to take a picture in front of a fountain! There people do not "force" the foreign streets with their fast steps and do not "force" the silence of the morning with the roar of their tourist rush...
"If you want to make God laugh, describe to him your plans for the future"
Not that it isn't fun to make God himself laugh, but the idea is that it would be wonderful to get used to looking at plans as something relative and conditional, and most of all - to learn not to call a "crisis" every situation that took us to a street, a cafe or a person that wasn't in the big "PLAN" for the day!
SlowTravel - the ability to create a connection with places instead of "tracing" tourist routes
Detailed, mapped out, ambitious, dynamic and with clear timing! If your travels to "foreign" lands have been like this so far, you are probably also the proud owner of photos, color magnets, and long printouts of travel programs...
However, hidden among them are untold stories from the backstreets, memories of the taste of the small sweets and raspberry syrup from that little inn, the names of those children with whom kicked a football in a street on the outskirts of town, and the address of a romantic purple house from whose old terrace you watched the sunset and then greeted the sunrise - simply because it was so unexpectedly beautiful that it was worth every slow minute there - from sunset to sunrise!
It's Christmas - miracles may not happen, but you can certainly do some really wonderful things!
Be with your loved ones and take some time to travel as well...just don't rush this time!