Irmgarde Brown

I just returned from a long awaited “bucket list” trip down the Danube. While waiting and planning for this trip for the past sixteen months, I felt sure this would be the cruise of a lifetime. Instead, the ship was stymied by heavy rains in Slovakia prior to our arrival that caused flooding and high waters downriver which meant our ship (run by Viking) would be unable to “fit” under the bridges along the way. My river cruise turned into a bus tour over half the time.

Of course, the cities included in the package were still amazing: Budapest & Bratislava (a bonus) in Hungary, Vienna, Krems (featuring Gottweig Abbey) & Salzburg (a side trip) in Austria, and finally Regensburg in Germany. But, in seven days, a city a day?

Two years ago, two old college friends and I did the National Parks out west - and it felt about the same: we drove through or walked through ten parks in ten days. Is this the meaning of travel? Is this how I want to travel?

Every day on the Viking trip, guests were offered a free excursion that included a one hour bus ride around the center of that city followed by another hour walking with an earpiece and a guide describing the buildings and giving historical background. Generally interesting but quick, quick, quick. It became a rush of photographs and very little true “seeing”. About the only buildings we entered regularly (besides gift shops) were the awe-inspiring cathedrals. Snap, snap, snap. Catch the picture before we move on. Is this how I want to experience these places?

Many people back home raved about river cruises. I had lots of visions in my head of strolling through beautiful spaces and in between, sitting on a deck, wine in hand, floating down the river, admiring the countryside. After all, the whole premise, if you look at the brochures, is  “comfort-based” and when that comfort is disrupted, well, there will be complaints. I didn’t want to be that “ugly American” but I confess, I was disappointed. No matter how commodious, a bus is a bus is a bus. And that’s what my river cruise became - a bus tour. Should it matter? Didn’t I still see all the same beautiful places? What was my disappointment really about?

I think I know: Expectations versus Reality

I’ve had the wrong idea about travel for quite a while, but this little truth is only now revealing its ugly head. For more years than I’d like to count, I’ve always been more about the outcomes instead of the process. For heaven’s sake! When will I evolve? I’ve been dwelling on expectations in my head for years instead of sowing experiences from the moment.

This post has been prompted by two things, my recent trip along with my reading and listening to the “Monk and Robot” series by Becky Campbell: A Psalm for the Wild-Built and A Prayer for the Crown Shy. Both novellas touched me deeply as they explore being in the moment, traveling, and “what is needed” to make a life worth living. The books are quirky at best, considered science fiction (otherworldly), and probably a little fringe with the author’s use of the “they” pronoun for one of the non-binary characters. And then, of course, there’s the robot. These two “characters” forge a bond while traveling the world of Panga and asking a lot of questions of the various humans they encounter. While reading, I began asking myself some of the same questions.

Travel can enlarge my mind and the soul if I stay awake and aware. Travel can be about experience and expansion if I give space in my mind and heart for that opportunity. Travel can challenge and enlighten me if I go beyond my comfort zone. Do I want to just see the external elements or do I want to understand what I see? Do I want to see beauty only or can beauty teach me something?

Maria Popova writes, “...we come alive in beholding beauty, intensely immersed in the here and now. Beauty beckons us — from Bach to Blake to the dramatic limestone outcrop on a Basque beach that unravels a billion years our planet’s story as a solitary spaceship in a vast and mysterious universe.”

And John O’Donohue writes, “The human soul is hungry for beauty… When we experience the Beautiful, there is a sense of homecoming. Some of our most wonderful memories are beautiful places where we felt immediately at home. We feel most alive in the presence of the Beautiful for it meets the needs of our soul.”

I plan to seriously consider how I want my next “travel” to land inside my heart. Any travel in today’s economy is a serious investment of time and money. I don’t want to make what’s next to be about ticking off checkboxes from my so-called bucket list. I want to come alive! I want to be able to say “I need this.”