There better be self service McDonalds on this train!
Travel can sometimes be a tale of trains, planes and fast-speed, blurry views of a world from a window. Moving too fast to catch the beauty, the feeling and the atmosphere of a place and the inability to stop and really see a new city.
Ironic in the sense that moving around countries, continents and countless cities is only becoming easier, sometimes the focus is on the ease, speed and accessibility of travel.
Gone are the days of the follow your feet mentality. The rise with the sun and ride with the wind approach to the journey not the destination. It is only too easy to place increasing importance of seeing everything but not really looking, of being everywhere but not really going. These places that we can take ourselves all over the world are not merely a checklist waiting for another tick. Breezing through with a surface level ogle, a point and click mantra to having 'done' another location is not the travel I ever had envisioned.
Understanding the life of a people, a culture, is not always possible and certainly not in a few days but getting off the tourist traipsed path always is. Tune out to the Americans, block the Chinese chatter and listen to the resolute hum of the native tongue.
Push yourself in to what you don't know with a willing head and an open mind. With an eagerness to learn and understand and a ready attitude to follow the unknown, it becomes greatly more likely that a deeper understanding of the culture will blossom.
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