Russell and Kapuscinski --- Crossing Borders

The most prevalent theme that we discuss in Travel Writing is the crossing of borders; not only physical borders but also metaphorical ones as well. While learning about the different people that are considered travel writers, I have come to better understand the power of a diary, journal, or piece of writing that reflects the obstacles, or borders, that one might encounter while traveling. I have never kept a diary or journal, even while I travel. Even though I better understand the importance of it, it doesn’t mean that I believe keeping such keepsakes is important. I think that keeping a diary or journal, especially while traveling, means analyzing everything from my actions to my mood. I feel as though an experience is lost when I analyze, more so because I tend to over analyze. Yes, I am one of those people who constantly feel the need to read between the lines … even if there is nothing to be read.

Connecting my thoughts on diaries, journals, and travel writings to this week’s prompt, to me, is simple. In order to understand what type of metaphorical border one crosses requires analytical thought. With that being said, let’s look at two very different travel writers and travel experiences.  The travel writers Mary Russell and Ryszard Kapuscinski are great examples of travel writers who specifically travel for the purpose of crossing borders.

In the Amazonian packet, we read an excerpt from Mary Russell’s Mirror Images. Her writing is based in Bosnia, a much different place than her native Dublin. Thus, we can imagine the multitude of borders that she encountered. A specific example is crossing the gender border. I think that this is most important when talking about a female travel writer. Men and women take on different gender roles based on a specific culture and while reading Russell’s excerpt we can see the different expectations Bosnians place on women.

“But when Ahmed handed me his [gun] and they all looked with interest to how good a shot I might be, a wave of nausea overcame me and I couldn’t touch it. The soldiers laughed and returned to their game; it was as they expected.”  (Russell 127)

            In Travels With Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski, the Polish native traveled outside of the Eastern Bloc nation to write about different places and cultures. Coming from a Communist controlled country, there were many metaphorical borders that Kapuscinski crossed. Like Russell, I will focus on one. The major border that I feel Kapuscinski crossed was that of foreigner.  He traveled to Italy, India, and Greece to name a few places, but he was never comfortable because he always felt like an outsider.

“I began to feel unpleasant and uncomfortable. I had changed my suit, but I apparently could not conceal whatever lay beneath it that shaped and marked me as a foreign particle.” (Kapuscinski 14)

            These two particular borders that Russell and Kapuscinski crossed I find somewhat important. For me, as a female, crossing gender borders can be hard and it makes understanding a culture even that more important when traveling. As for feeling like a “foreign particle,” I don’t think it’s too important of a border. Feeling out of place is a personal problem, again stemming from not understanding or knowing how a specific culture might work. In the end, I think crossing borders is easy when you have the knowledge to do so.

Great Explorers --> Lewis and Clark

Travel Research

In a previous post, I described my ideal trip … or rather, my lack of desire to go somewhere specific. To think of how I might prepare myself before the trip to God only knows where is hard for me. 1) Leaving on a whim doesn’t give me much preparation time and 2) I don’t think that I would want to know anything. It’s not because I’m lazy, it’s because I find being unaware to be interesting. It leads to experiences that I wouldn’t have had if I had planned everything ahead of time. Now, in order to fulfill requirements for future assignments (travelogue) and this post I have to choose a specific place and talk about what kind of research I would do before I packed my bags. For these reasons alone, I have chosen to focus on my family’s vacation to Cozumel, Isla Rotan, Cayman Islands, and Belize.

            I find, like I said before, that I wouldn’t want to plan everything out. Thus, my researching wouldn’t not consist of traveling guides. I am going to focus only on Belize because that’s really the only place I’m super excited about visiting. Take a moment and think about Belize with me … what do we already know? It’s in Central America; it was once inhabited by the Mayan culture and has hundreds of Mayan ruins, and it has a rich history of pre-colonization, colonization, and independence. The researching can now start.

            I would first get a map of Belize and plot out the ruins that I want to see or find most fascinating. Yes, this is time consuming but as I plot I am reading information about the different sites and history behind them. I’m not a Central American historian and I don’t plan to be in the future, but my fantastic Walsh education has brought me up to speed with most general information about the area. I probably wouldn’t spend much time researching that. I would however, burry my head in a book on the Mayan Civilization. For me, one of the most interesting things is ancient civilizations and this would be the perfect opportunity to learn more about it. I might brush up on my Spanish skills a little, but Belize’s official language is English, so I should alright in that department.

            Most people, I feel, will choose to look through travel guides, maps, maybe even talk to people they know that have been there before. I understand why they do this, to prepare themselves and to gain a better understanding of where they are going. For me, it’s not like that. I feel like I just keep saying the same thing over and over, but it’s true; I don’t like planning! Planning makes for a boring and predictable trip. I myself am an unpredictable person, you never know what I’m going to say or do next … it only fits that I would want my travels to be just as spontaneous as my personality.

Would I travel with Mark Twain?

When I think about Mark Twain, I always think the same thing: was he a transcendentalist writer? For some reason I just cannot remember … then I Google it, and no, he was not. Well, now that I have gotten that burning question answered, I can focus on the blog at hand. Would I travel with Mark Twain? After careful deliberation this is what I came up with …

I think I might have to say no on this one. And no Ron Scott, it is not just because he offended a member high up on my family tree, Henry David Thoreau, it would be because I cannot travel with a complete stranger! Mark Twain dabbled in many things as we found out during our class discussion, but most famously he is an author. Not going to lie, I do not read. In fact I would go so far as to say I loathe it unless it has some historical significance. Thus, I have not read anything written by Twain, with the exception of the reading for homework, and I do not intend in the future. I have however, seen movies based off of Twain’s novels. But like most Hollywood exaggerations, I am sure the books are much better.

Now that my relationship, or lack thereof, with Twain has been established I can dive right into the reason why I would not want to travel with him. Like I said, for me Mark Twain is a complete stranger. He has a scary resemblance to Albert Einstein and I would want to travel with someone with similar “travel level” as me. I just got done googling Mark Twain, and learned that he had traveled extensively, not only in the United States but internationally too. He would be way above me on the travel scale. I want someone to experience things for the first time, not someone to guide me or tell me what I should do. For some reason I feel like Twain would do that. But is that necessarily a bad thing?

I am such an indecisive person; I cannot even come to a conclusion right now. I said that I might have to say no, but after getting my thoughts out I think that maybe it would not be so bad to travel with Mark Twain. Like I said, he is a stranger to me so I should take the time to get to know him before I judge. I think next time I travel I will take Twain with me, in book form that is. Then we will see … maybe my relationship with the “father of American literature” will blossom, or it will fizzle out and I will continue on with my Twainless life.

WOTD -- My ideal travel companion

My ideal travel companion would be my best friend Joe. I would choose him because he is my best friend and we always have too much fun together, but also because I know that he and I have to same idea of what traveling really is. He is into making traveling about fun but he understands that it’s also about learning/understanding different cultures and languages.