SandraD's Intrepid Tales

HISTORY

sandrad — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 11:38:00 GMT

Rome is an amazing city – every corner you look around, there is another site to behold, an unbelievable story of conquest, lust and greed. It is an awe inspiring city in terms of history. So it is no surprise that Australians love that aspect. However, it is interesting when you hear Australians say that Australia has no history. I think we have been taught to think of history as monuments, kings, personalities, art – material things left behind as a record of HIS story.

Australia has a very rich history – it is a history steeped in one of the oldest cultures in the world. Aborigines did not need to build monuments to honour their egos – their history was and still is living. It’s in the rocks, mountains and in nature that tell their stories. It’s in an oral history so rich and unique that it has been handed down through generations. Whilst the Roman Empire has long been gone and their relics have survived, Aboriginal culture continues to adapt, grow and flourish albeit it in a country which does not value its own history.

DOGS IN ITALY

sandrad — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 14:15:00 GMT

In the north of Italy it is very common to see people with dogs going into restaurants, shops, trains. Today I saw a dribbling St Bernard in a woman’s clothes shop, just dripping all over the place. His owner was a well dressed & lovely looking Italian woman. There she was taking him by the lead around the clothes shop. In the south, most of the dogs just lie about and don’t really belong to anyone. They get scraps when they can and aren’t too bothered about anyone.

DREAMS

sandrad — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 14:11:00 GMT

How many of us strive and plan for our dreams. Some of us actually have our dreams realised and feel empty when we have achieved them. What do we do now? Some people go through life trying to reach an impossible dream and are always disappointed with reality. Some people give up on their dreams and settle for reality. Some people realise their dreams and then struggle with reality. Some people realise their dreams and then think of new ones to achieve. I have reached my dream job – travelling overseas in Italy and getting paid for it. But this leaves me empty. What now? I have achieved this dream so is this all there is? What I forgot to realise is that there are always new dreams to dream up and even if we never get there – who cares? Life without dreams is not worth living. Even the impossible dreams can get you somewhere you had never planned to go before. There’s always a balance between never giving up on dreams but not making them an excuse for not living in reality.

DANGERS OF TRAVEL –METAPHORICALLY SPEAKING!

sandrad — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 14:09:00 GMT

Travel can be one of the greatest experiences. It opens you up to new experiences, shakes up your foundation and can totally reshape your being. But it can be another excuse not to sit still and just be with your thoughts and emotions. It can be an escape from reality, from ourselves and where we actually are. There’s always an insatiable desire to keep going. Stopping is seen as the enemy and equates with stagnation. So travellers keep going, doing, never really stopping, looking for the next best place, the trendy spot of the day – running from where they are.

LO SCHIAFFO – THE QUINTISSENTIAL ITALIAN SLAP Making Grown Men Cry

sandrad — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 14:06:00 GMT

During August, it is the ferroagosto – (holiday season for Italians), so you tend to see more Italians travelling than normal. Whilst I was in Capri, I was amongst a bus load of Italian travellers. The bus was lively with people abusing each other, making jokes, laughing, screaming and lots of hand gestures! I noticed a boy of around 15 years old with his Mamma. He was twice her size and was sitting in the doorway of the bus and she was standing behind him. When the bus stopped to let someone off, he was blocking the doorway. His mother yelled at him to get up and with one fell swoop of her hand, gave him a backhander – a schiaffo, across his head. (Lo Schiaffo is a perfectly executed slap with a quick wrist action and under and up movement at the back of the head.) She turned this 15 year old boy into a cowering mess. There’s a lot said about Italian boys and their mammas and how they cling to their mothers. If you had seen how quickly this woman had reacted to this young boy twice her size, you can understand the power of Lo Schiaffo. In Italian society, for men, there is always that fear of Lo Schiaffo, that mamma will be right behind them clipping them behind their ears infront of the whole world!

FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY

sandrad — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 13:59:00 GMT

I’ve had many people writing to me that they are envious of where I am. I do have an interesting job and travel can be such a rewarding experience but I wonder where the envy comes from. Perhaps people think I am free here with no responsibility? I also thought I would have more freedom here, freedom to be myself away from the confines and expectations of home. In some respects that is true but I also have responsibility. I have responsibility to Intrepid, for my passengers who are on my trip, to my surrounding environment, to the local community. I still have to pay my mortgage, taxes, feed myself, clothe myself … so what is freedom anyway? Is it to be without responsibility? I used to see responsibility as a burden, something I would have to carry with me. If only I could be free of all these responsibilities, then life would be good. I could do what I want, when I want and how I want. Many of us like it that we have responsibility. It gives us a role, something to worry about, something to occupy our time so it takes us away from the big questions: why am I here, what is my purpose, who am I really. Often we get trapped in our own prisons be that our job, a boss we dislike, parental authority, financial issues, our partner, our mortgage, home renovations, the problems of the world. I have felt my own prison in Italy. One night in Verona, a beautiful city full of romance and colour, I sat in my hotel room, alone and on my bed. The hotel room was how I would imagine a prison – room enough for one bed and a tiny bathroom and not much else. It had a small window which you could only just open to get some air. It looked out onto a landing full of air conditioner units. I felt totally and utterly confined, imprisoned, unable to breathe. I couldn’t go back to where I was and I couldn’t go forward. I was stuck in this unmoving, lifeless air. It was then that I realised that I constructed this environment. My attitude to it was what made me short of breath and feeling hopeless. Some of the greatest people of our time have felt freedom in prison – Martin Luther King Jnr, Nelson Mandela – they have been able to transcend the physical and find something liberating in their choice to be responsible – responsible for taking a stand for humanity and responsible for looking beyond their current reality. It‘s why we need to dream. Dreams help us to escape the prison and to search for a better way. Responsibility and freedom is possible – it’s a state of mind - we can choose how we behave and we are responsible for our actions and choices. Responsibility doesn’t have to be a burden, it is all part of the human experience and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

FREE DAY IN FLORENCE

sandrad — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 09:47:00 GMT

Wow! Here I am a whole free day in Florence. My passengers are out and about and I have a whole free day in Florence to myself, no interruptions, no major work to do. I am free to do anything I want in Florence, today, all day. Woo Hoo. Fantastic. I am in Florence, and free.

So what am I going to do in Florence? Museums? Mmmm…seen the Uffizi, Accademia, Il Duomo museum, what about Bargello? Nah, don’t want to do a museum. What about the Boboli gardens? Have to pay to get in and then what do I do. Been there too. Okay, what about Il Duomo. Let’s climb the Dome. Done that too plus it is 464 steps….. The Bell Tower? Done that too & that’s 414 steps. What about going to see Michelangelo’s tomb in Basilica di Santa Croce? Who wants to go and see a tomb. I guess that rules out the Medici tombs then. Yep. What about walking around San Lorenzo markets? Sick of shopping and don’t have any money to spend. Ponte Vecchio? Did that yesterday. Churches? Arghh…no more churches.

So this is what I have come to. A group leader with no passengers who can’t be a tourist for the day!! Think I will just sit on my computer and write about what I am going to do in Florence for my free day. On second thoughts, am going to just wander around and immerse myself in Florence and see where it takes me because I am free today in Florence!!

THE TROPHY

sandrad — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 09:46:00 GMT

Are you searching for the Trophy boyfriend? The one that you think will:

make you look good
make other women envious
signal success in the world
make people look at you

Then where does HE fit in? Leave him on the mantelpiece and go and find yourself a real man

BEAUTY: In the eye of the beholder

sandrad — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 09:45:00 GMT

In bella Italia, everything is certainly beautiful: beautiful people, fashion, architecture, nature, food, wine, even the window displays are beautiful. But what is beauty? It is easy to get caught up in the superficiality of beauty. They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and in the modern era we have assumed it is only way kind of eye. The eye of fashion, make up, body beautiful and everyone looking and appearing in the same way. I watch the younger women, smokes in their hand with an air of aloofness wearing the latest fashion – hipsters revealing their pelvic bones, all looking the same with white belts, sandals and tiny tops. The men look tough, sunglasses on their heads, jeans expsosing Calvin Klein underwear, trying to impress the women. Fashion can help to express oneself but it can also act as a mask. The mask of beauty hides an insecure society – not just in Italy but all around the world. Every society has its mask but what are we hiding from? Ourselves, the outside world?

If you focus too much on the outside, what happens to the inner. And is it true that once you find the beauty within, it shows on the outer? What does this beauty look like? It’s not so much a look but a feeling. You see it when friends are connecting and laughing with one another – that’s beautiful. You see it when two old toothless men are sitting at a bench playing cards in the park. That’s beautiful. You can see beauty everywhere. You just have to look further than the mask.

“A thing of beauty is a joy forever” Keats

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” “The Little Prince” Antoine Saint Expurey

DIFFERENT OR BETTER? RIGHT OR WRONG?

sandrad — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 09:42:00 GMT

The interesting thing about travel is that you automatically compare the country you are in with the one you live in. In doing so, there is a danger that you don’t see the country for what it is. It is only natural though to compare because you judge things on what you know. Here lies the problem, if you judge everything on what you know, when do you allow things just to be different without making them worse or better from what you have come from.

Let’s take Italy for example. Many Australians come to Italy, and are horrified that you have to pay for most of the beach space here. Australia is blessed with expansive, clean and crystal clear water beaches. In Italy, you have limited beach space and often the sand is madeup of pebbles or rocks (depending on the region). One look tells an Australian that Italian beaches are inferior but to the Europeans, Italian beaches are sought after. Imagine landlocked European countries like Belgium or Nordic countries like Norway, to them Italian beaches are a haven.

There are also two sides to everything. You need to pay for Italian beaches because there are so many people here (60 million in the size of Victoria) plus all the tourists that visit (around 40 million annually). You need to pay to keep the beaches clean and to help to maintain them. Right or Wrong? Better or Worse? Maybe it is just different – and that’s why we travel, to experience different things.

Before comparing, it is great to be open to where you are and act as an objective observer. Then you can see the country for what it is, without making the country and its people better or worse. It can also help you to appreciate what you have without forcing your opinions on others. To me, travel is about expanding your vision and opening up to different ways of doing things without judgement. Then you can sought through all the ideas and find out what is real for you.