Afterword

One of my long-standing theories about travel, is that a city is always better the second time you visit it.

First visits, unless you know a local, are always limited to frantic cramming of as many historical sites and museums as possible, ensuring one’s checklist of ‘Things to see’ and ‘Things to do’ is not left looking fresh and clean. Crossing things out, like a grocery list, you return home with a feeling of satisfaction at having finally seen the Colosseum, or the Eiffel Tower, but what is it really you wanted to see? What was it really you wanted to gain?

The video below, from Alain de Botton’s The School of Life, perfectly encapsulates why we truly travel. It’s a means of discovering not only the world, but also ourselves. Beyond achieving the ‘tangible’, what is it about new places that attracts us to visit them? Or old places that are inviting enough to entice us to spend our money and beloved time off to head there again?

De Botton highlights the fact that we should be ambitious about travel. And what does ambition mean, exactly? A dictionary definition will tell you “having or showing a strong desire and determination to succeed.” For me, with regards to travel, it is about going beyond the norm. Throwing away the laundry list and immersing yourself in a place, being at one with it. The ambition about this type of travel, especially in less ‘exotic’ places that are, actually, very close to home, is the possibility of imagining your life living there.