Reflecting and Reminiscing

It seems appropriate to reflect back on my time traveling now that I've had a little distance from it. I must admit that I don't like that I am back if I could just travel from place to place like I did I don't think I would. it would also make me a much more social person.

Here is the list of where I went, roughly, this break:

London
Barcelona
Granada
Malaga
Cordoba
Seville
Madrid
Barcelona
Zurich
Vienna
Baden
Salzburg
Zurich
Paris
Amsterdam
Munich
Salzburg
Geneva
Zurich
Vienna
Venice
Florence
Rome

My favorite city was perhaps Barcelona but I look most forward to returning to Rome. I began at some point, rather early on, to judge cities by the ones I would most like to live in. I thought to my self that I should by a house here and right a book, or this is a good place to grow old, or that I would like to live here and have a job here. Each city had a different personality, one I felt you could grasp rather quickly. There was a certain vibe that did not really delve into the city's soul but there was something there that you felt was unique to that city after only spending a few hours there.
Traveling like I did was very freeing, but I see how it would rather quickly lose its charm. There was a certain sense that once I entered a new lace it wasn't as special as it would have been had I not have been traveling through so much. The constant barrage of stimuli cause reduced sensitivity and all that fun stuff.
Yet, what I found most attractive was the idea that I wouldn't be spending any more than two days in any one place and I had to see what was worth seeing. I was forcing myself to do stuff because I was there and it seemed a waste if I didn't do certain stuff. At the same time I didn't feel like a tourist that had a bucket list. I spent plenty of time in coffee shops reading the Herald Tribune. Everything was exiting and new with a sense of urgency and a sense of purpose. Perhaps that was the most important part of it all that I had a sense of purpose that was rather defined. I tend to avoid having that in my life, goals purposes. Perhaps I should start is seems a useful psychological tool, but at the same time I don't want to feel as if I'm leading myself around in neat little circles.
This is the third go at this, and it seems best to finally end this blog entry. Essentially travel is nice. Having a place to go to is nice. Life should be a mixture of new experiences and the the comfort of old. When new experiences are comforting you are done for.

Venice

I love Venice i really do its the second time I've been here and if it hadn't been for my train ticket ending tomorrow I would have spent more time here just to walk around. Every where you turn there is something absolutely amazing. I didn't realize before how much Muslim influence there is here.

Anyway as exited I am to stay here I'm ready to head back and start studying again. I feel like I've neglected my studies. I also have come to the conclusion that I need to work on my writing more.

I didn't bring my ipod or laptop on this trip so I've been feeling a little deprived. I've started thinking of what I'm going to to when I get back to Oxford. I have a meeting with my tutor at 1 after that I'm going to buy some kielbasi and sauerkraut and a nice big bottle of Leffe the one that looks like a champagne. I'm going to eat that while listing to Rachmaninoff and than I'm going to play some pool and have some absinthe. And maybe go to Bridge maybe...

Salzburg... again

showers and clean underware are definitly over-rated

also any time you are in a place and its six a clock and nothing is open you know you are in austruia

i´m looking foward to my second mc clean

i am taking the same train for the same time, and its a horrible train... but hopefully not as bad as the stuggart-paris train

i miss billiards

stuff

i don't belive in sudden changes, even seemingly sudden changes are prompted by a lot of background, nothing is ever trully spontateouse and anything that is slowely readjusts, this is arguably absurdly broad but i am trying to apply it to different parts of life, it applies to civilzations, cultures, and of course personal life, perhaps the most famous formulation of this idea is Aristotle's Golden Mean, the idea of everything in moderation, this idea existed in many different forms in many different views of life, the stoics to which i feel most of a kindred, belived in an inner sense of moderadiot as opposed to our actions, we can do whatever we want as long as we are able to undergo internal calm or whatever the or whatever the word they used was, i agree that as long as we have an internal calm we can do whatever the hell we want if it gets us off heel it is wrong, if we feel alieanted from ourself it is wrong, mental illness is not wrong because society does not accept the behaviors of the ill but it is when they are not at peace with themselves

there is that quote in my profile from hesse which was meant to describe people later in life but i feel it applies to me as well, as do many angsty teens, no matter how much you learn you change the scenery there is the internal facet that ahs to be dealt with differently and none of that stuff matters as long as the internal stuff is in order (stoics), i had a friend that moed to settle for a year because he was in a rut but it wasn't until he found his fiance, in upstate ny where he was originally living, did he come out of that rut, its not a matter of where you move what you see or what you learn that will bring peace real peace to yourself, but its how you approach those things, how you take care of the internal world, and in turn that will color everything external

i like to travel alone because other people slow me down and i have to put what i want second, but perhaps i am wrong in dismissing people so quickly, thing only seem real when you tell them to someone else so that they have some existence outside of yourself, this is the type of bullshit that i laugh when i read because it is bullshit, its not something you write about but simply something you come to realize, perphase because i am feeling a bit pretentious its like a zen saying that you don't get until you do

Paris

Paris is nice it is and i think will always be one of my favorite cities. I like the buildings, the shit, the people not as much. I didn't get to see as much of the city as I would have liked, for some reason I was very tired, and that is in no way a dig.

Bought another Marquz book which is nice but will offer a distraction from Kant. Its a very interesting book because it heardly has any breaks sentences go on for pages and there are no paragraph; chapters offer the only reprive.

The train ride was less than steller out of Paris, but nowhere near as bad as the one going in. Going in it was a small crowed train full of drunk revelers* not what I needed at 2 in the morning on 6 hours of sleep. I originally planned to travel everywhere like that but i doubt I can do it for more than a few days. Now I'm in Amsterdam for tree days, we'll see how that ends.

Zurich

Thank god for McClean s... and internet cafes

Salzburg

I am sitting in an internet cafe with nothing better to do. I am sure I have a lot to write but I can´t think of any of it. I left Vienna today and spent the day here and in about three hours I am headed to Zurich and sometime tomorrow I think i am headed to Paris. After that the northern countries and I´m headed to Italy may also go to southern France and Switzerland again but idk.

I went through Zurich on my way to Vienna from Madrid... 24 hours of traveling but I started a blog about that might post it when I finish. I have a friend that updates his blog everyday, but than again its more of a politcal/social thing.. I´m waiting for him to run out of things to say but it hasn´t happened as of yet.

Salzburg was a bit of a disapointment even though the Alps are amazing. That was the best part of the city. Those with money to burn would have definitely appriciated the old town center, lots of boutique shopes.

I have little over 800€ for the rest of my trip, which should prove interesting esecially since my biggest expanse, sleeping probaly doesn´t take credit cards.

I have another 21 minuts to write, or I could tell two of my teachers why I don´t like the way I was taught any more... I think I´ll do that: