Its already two weeks since I have left my home country. The longest since I have been on a vacation.
To be honest, I have mixed feelings about being out so very far away. For one it feels surreal as this could be once in a lifetime or maybe a repeat on a rare occassion, considering the holiday is planned for six weeks.
I am currently in London and am slowly warming up to it. The weather does remind me of Bangalore but the winds are strong and biting cold unlike what I have ever experienced.
Our first visit was to Scotland, a land that reminded my husband of Leh Ladakh, a destination he often remembers fondly. For me Scotland drives ranged from magical pages of a fairy tale book to picture perfect paintings. Huge mountains, long roads with bare trees and water bodies accompanying you on several roads were a sight to remember.
I love taking pictures and videos of beautiful landscapes, but in Scotland I realised no amount of perfect pictures on camera could do justice to what the human eye can see or memorise.
London is an extremely busy city. Particularly, Central London I felt it was the representation of the world population. Koreans, Asians, Chinese, Americans, Arabs, British, Indians everyone could be seen walking towards various tourist destinations.
Yes, there is indeed a lot of walking to do to visit tourist attractions in London. I found the London eye captivating and saw the Tower Bridge that reminded me of a momento years ago my dad had purchased for me when back from a trip to London.
Life is good and hard for people living here but they do get to experience quality life for which they have to pay a price. I guess, in India we are used to small joys and we should be grateful for the never ending small joys we get in every major town in India.
Stopping your vehicle to meet up for a coffee, going for walks without being bothered about biting cold, the accessibility to humongous variety of food, getting to meet relatives, family, colleagues, friends or interactions with neighbours, the list is endless.
Of course added to it is chaos, pollution, crowds, noise and so many factors that are less likely to be seen in Europe.
Ultimately, it is the choices we make. The place where we are staying and many other neighbourhoods have curated parks, good roads and Central London has amazing buildings that are swanky looking and scream niche or elite. Yet they look stunning.
Comparatively in Bangalore, we have tons of parks too which may not be too curated but look raw but homely. The roads of course are not there and we are used to it and we have high rises too.
Travel teaches you a lot and we as a family have indeed travelled a lot within the country. However travelling out of country is a different ball game. It pushes you away from the comfort zone. I do feel it is important and one should do it once kids are above age ten so that they understand, remember something of the trip.
I do find solace when I am travelling, enjoy my me time and look forward to going back home too. Here too I am trying to grasp as much as I can.
