I know I said the last post would be the final nostalgic / retrospective story, but I lied. The overall plan to return to a normal service is still underway and whats been written for future updates does indeed reflect this, just think of this as a one time special to get some different content off my chest.

I’ve often find myself reminiscing on the adventures I’ve had, those I’ve had them with, this website and wonder, have I made the right decisions in retelling the tales? As you see each story is written on a location by location basis. This in itself has several advantages, it gives the opportunity for a more detailed and thorough story, each with a greater number of location specific pictures. But what about the downsides? This method of story telling is all well and good when you’re covering a single nights adventure, or even that of a long weekend, but what when you’ve been travelling for days, weeks or even months on end?

Anyone whose ever been on a road trip knows that its not always about the final destination, but the adventures that happen along the way. This is also true for exploring trips, sometimes the greatest adventures happen within the process of reaching that end goal, getting sidetracked, lost, ending up off the beaten track. Its these details and resulting photographs that have so far suffered because of the above, falling victim to not belonging. I want to show them, but It would be strange to add picture of say someone swimming, to the end of a metro station story, the juxtaposition would be too great.

So what does one do? Rewrite from scratch, create a separate story covering the whole trip, or huddle in a corner and cry for possibly making the wrong decision? All, with the exception of the crying, would require immense work, something i’m not willing to undertake. Its just too late in the game for that kind of change.

If you’ve managed to read this far and not just looked at the pictures and closed the window, you’re probably wondering where I’m going with this as I clearly said i’m not going to change the sites structure. Well, this elongated monologue, which originally was just an excuse to post some unused travel pictures, does actually have relevance with the theme of road trips.

A few days ago I was having a conversation with Witek, one of my frequent partners in travelling grime, we were discussing our trip through America. Its a given that the trip was enjoyable, the people we met, the places we visited and the overall experience was just incredible. In the rush of the moment I went out on a limb and stated that it was likely the best I had been on, thinking he would agree. He didn’t.

Now that’s not to say he didn’t enjoy the trip, in fact far from it, simply that he did not believe you should attempt to categorise and rank your travels based on little details like the locations you explored. Each trip should be remembered both separately and as a whole, taking all the experiences that made it into account, the people, locations, travel, misadventures, accidents, fines, everything. Attempting to rate one over another on exactly how fun each particular event was is pointless and will potentially lead to disappointment. If you enjoyed it, why should you care?

I knew straight away he was right, and personally, I liked that optimistic and simple way of thinking. I’ve been to several countries over the years, from Italy to Canada, each time meeting the locals and enjoying what they had to offer. These trips naturally had both their highs and low points and occasions that were more memorable than others, but they were always different. Climbing bridges, wading through sewers, camping in a desert or just being sociable, because yes, explorers do on a rare occasion act like normal people. No matter what though, for the good and the bad, I always came home with a smile on my face.