The art of traveling

by The Flamingo

This article is inspired by the “bon viveur/la dolce vita” theme. It’s a prolific subject for me personally, with endless possibilities. This modus vivendi, of living life a certain way, with some grace, delicacy, simplicity and meaning has been a goal for me for a very long time, part of my upbringing in a way. (See my article L’art de la delicatesse for details).

Art in general refers to creativity and imagination. Everything we do can have some kind of artistic form or other. This applies to traveling as well. The way we travel is also a result of one’s core values and education. There are a lot of passionate travelers out there, people who really make it a way of living, very determined to walk every meter of this earth. I am not an avid traveler, however, I consider it one of my favorite pastimes. For me it all depends on free time, family situations and of course, most importantly, funds. 

There are many kinds of travelers: 

The globetrotters, whose goal is to go to a new place every time, covering most of the world. They are very thirsty to see something new, have new experiences every time, more daring, more adventurous…more and more and more. They don’t slow down…and I get them, this world is pretty big and we only live for so long. They live at a speed which is not very comfortable, but gets them to places. 

The wannabe globetrotters are the next on the list. They wish from all their heart to replicate the real ones, to travel as much as they do, but they don’t actually live the experiences. They don’t feel them, they just want to check places off their list, in search of some form of gratification when they achieve their goals. But that gratification doesn’t come, because the only thing on their mind is what to see next as quickly as possible and they lose any type of experience and learning this way. But this is also a form of traveling, a shallower one for sure, maybe sometimes even wasteful. 

The mild voyagers are the people who like to travel sometimes during their vacations, but not as a form of religion. They don’t necessarily tend to obsess over new places, they like to try new things, but they also like to return maybe to places already visited. They travel more for relaxation, to detach from the day to day stress and practically they are always in search of the stress free feeling, more than anything else. Places that bring peace are part of their focus, but also cultural trips, which takes the mind of trivial matters and centers it towards the meaning of what they experience. 

The routine travelers like their comfort very much, so they tend to always go to the safe places they know they liked. They don’t take any risks, they like to know what is waiting for them and that they have guaranteed a very good experience. These travelers usually don’t go on vacations more than twice a year, usually at the seaside in the summer and to the mountains during the winter holidays. They like their routine. The good memories are very well carved in their mind and the purpose is to experience them again and again. They are happy thus, so they actually achieve their goals more rapidly than many other travelers.

The non travelers…which you would say it isn’t a type at all. They either travel or they don’t. Well these are very tricky, because they like their home a lot and they see it as a form of betrayal to travel. For them it means you don’t like your home enough, if you feel the need to go away. But they also travel, very little for sure, but they do. They are more comfortable with day trips from time to time, maybe visiting family once in a blue moon. They are also happy in their ways, they don’t get to live new experiences or to savour travel as a form of learning, but what one doesn’t know it won’t kill him. So oblivion is also a form of happiness, which is, in my opinion, everyone’s goal in life (happiness, not oblivion). 

After reading this, I bet you tend to categorize yourself in my little list, to find what suits you. But don’t! These are just grobian forms of listing, there are a lot more nuances to every traveler, to every category, but I am not here to write a book on this subject. I myself for example, am a mix. I like to travel a lot, but I don’t have the purpose to visit everything, to always see something new. I love returning to certain places. I also like the comfort of my own house and I don’t die if I spend one vacation at home. But sometimes, escaping from the daily routine to somewhere else is a necessity.

The latest book I read “L’art de la delicatesse” by Dominique Loreau, had a chapter on how to travel meaningfully …with “refinement” like she expressed it. She condemns the mindless traveling…called ”tourism”. I happen to agree as well. In my mind, the art of traveling doesn’t mean sitting in enormous queues just to enter some popular place, like a dome or a skyscraper with hordes of people encircling me. Although I did all that, but found out with the years passing by that I don’t enjoy it. Life is too short to do things that don’t necessarily suit me, in my free time. 

So I got a tiny notebook and wrote down all the things that would make me happy on my travels:

• To go to Paris as often as I can and at the seaside in my home land, like a routine traveler. To feel the comfort of known experiences, that I know with certainty will bring me happiness. 
• To visit all the places in the UK or abroad where the famous BBC series “Poirot” was filmed. I am very passionate about this series and the British countryside.
• To spend some days in Casablanca…well, also because of the movie with the same name.
• To travel every year to Japan (if only I could)…and live for a few weeks in a new place, with the locals and learning all the tricks for cooking Japanese dishes. 
• To climb a volcano with my kid, just because it’s his greatest wish. 
• To ride on a swing with all the nuances of the blue ocean from Maldives under my feet.
• To spend a summer at Cape Cod and an autumn in Vermont, in the USA. 
• To ice skate in Central Park and go with my son in the biggest toy store from New York. I don’t need to tell you where this idea came from. 
• Disneylands are also on my list, the more, the merrier. 
• To ride once the Orient Express from Paris to Istanbul with a friend or two. 
• To spend hours in Hermitage and Peterhof, during winter would be best.
• To visit every Impressionist museum there is. 
• To sunbathe in St. Tropez in a stripy bikini. 
• To go on a cruise to Alaska. 
• To climb behind the Niagara Falls, to see if it really is a secret place hidden behind it (see the movie “Niagara” for details). 

There are a lot of things written down on my tiny bucket list, I just scraped the surface. Also, there are lots I have already experienced. It may seem ridiculous to some, but this is my way of traveling, which suits me and is in sync with my “joie de vivre” mentality. Life is too short to do what others do, or not to enjoy your experiences to the fullest. You just have to get to know yourself better, be sincere, admit what you are about and be dedicated to making yourself happy. Make traveling an art, a symbol of your own creativity and imagination. 

Photo by Norman Parkinson “The Art of Travel” (1951)