The Motorcycle Diaries

Have you read The Motorcycle Diaries?

I bought it ages ago

(well, the end of November)

Because my sister and cousin and I 

made big plans to motorcycle 

across South America 

in approximately the year 2017.

But I just started reading it yesterday 

- the timing was perfect - 

and I absolutely love it.  

Confession: I cried while reading the introduction.

Let me give you a few of these beautiful phrases that made me smile so hard my stomach burst:

"...he filled his whole life with youthfulness and matured his youth without diluting it"

"...with the sole purpose of getting to know the world..."

"our vocation, our true vocation, was to move for eternity along the roads and seas of the world. always curious, looking into everything that came before our eyes, sniffing out each corner..."

"having the spirit of a dreamer.."

"never to give up until we had realized our dream"

"the enormity of our endeavor escaped us in those moments; all we could see was the dust on the road ahead and ourselves on the bike, devouring kilometers.."

"i felt myself lifted definitvely away on the winds of adventure towards worlds i envisaged would be stranger than they were, into situations i imagined would be much more normal than they turned out to be"

"an expedition has two points, the point of departure and the point of arrival. if your intention is to make the second theoretical point coincide with the actual point of arrival, don't think about the means - because the journey is a virtual space that finishes when it finishes, and there are as manymeans ars there are different ways of "finishing." that is to say, the means are endless."

"...when in reality we had only just begun..."

And a picture of some of Che's observations of life, of injustice, that pricked my heart, pinched my mind:

"...we will see whether some day, some miner will take up his pick in pleasure and go to poison his lungs with a conscious joy."

"...the need to build schools that would orient individuals within their own world, enable them to play a useful role within it..."

"the need to change fundamentally the present system of education, which, on the rare occasion it does offer Indians education (according only to white man's criteria) simply fills them with shame and resentment, rendering them unable to help their fellow Indians and at the severe disadvantage of having to fight within a hostile white society which refuses to accept them..."

"The semi-indigenous features of the curator, his eyes shining with enthusiasm and his faith in the future, constituted one more treasure of the museum, but a living museum, proof of a race still fighting for its identity."

Oh. Oh. Oh.

To London to London

I had been in 14 airports in 21 days.  I was ready for a vacation, and had no qualms with the fact that Heathrow would be airport #16!!

I was so used to traveling with a group of travelers that I caught myself looking around as I got off the plane; a visual sweep to make sure everyone was getting off (why they wouldn't, I don't know!  But it's the group leader in me).  As I walked towards immigration thinking of the things that I had to do (get through immigration, find an ATM, double check my hotel address), it hit me: I was by myself.  I was on my own time.  I didn't have to keep an eye on anybody but myself.  I took a deep breath and I smiled.  I got through immigration and moseyed my way towards baggage claim.  Rambled around until I found an ATM.  Went to the bathroom - without informing anybody that I was going! - and retrieved my suitcase.  And before I went out to the taxi stand, I stopped at Costa and bought a latte.  Just because I could. (Bonus: they even had a gluten-free brownie! Heck yes I snatched that up!)

When I walked out the sliding doors towards the cab stand, a blast of cool air hit me.  It was autumn. I was in London.  I was on my own time.  My family was waiting for me.  My cabbie asked my destination, and I settled into the backseat with a smile.  Not just any smile, though.  The kind of smile that comes from deep within, warms every part of your body, and explodes out your mouth - the kind you wouldn't be able to keep in if you tried.  I sipped my latte and watched the scenery become more and more urban as we entered the city.  I realized that most foreigners are startled by the fact that the British drive on the left side of the road...but I live in India; I'm used to that.  I was more awestruck by the ORDER and DISCIPLINE with which we were driving!  I smiled again.  I live in India.  I'm rendezvousing with some of my favorite people in London.  I start to see landmarks that I recognize, and another smile explodes.  This is a good beginning to a great first day of the best vacation I have had in a very, very long time.  My family. Starbucks. Union Jack souvenir kitsch. Zara. Liberty London.  People watching. Spanish food. Gelato. Bathrobes. Gluten-Free bread. Brisk autumn breezes. Meeting new people. Learning.  Dancing. Being.  So many things that I love, all in the same place at the same time.  And it was only day one.