Last weekend I took time off from my busy schedule of work-work-work for a little trip with the yacht club. We sailed from Portsmouth Harbour to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight and back. Yarmouth turned out to be a peaceful little town with a cosy pub, a pretty sunset and many, many boats. I’m really in love with sailing, despite all the ups and downs. (A few months back I had to pull out of a sailing trip half way through as I was puking my guts out …) It’s a bit of a dream come true, because I’ve always wanted to sail as a kid and I never had the opportunity until now.
The Czech Republic is wonderful. But it’s small and landlocked, which kind of sucks. When I was a kid, I couldn’t help thinking that we got the rough end of the deal. We didn’t have any of those seafaring Great Explorers in our history. No Marco Polo, no Ferdinand Magellan, no Vasco da Gama, no Christopher Columbus, no Sir Francis Drake … no plundering, no spices, no gold. No pirates. Not enough beach holidays. In history lessons we learnt about the land reforms of Joseph II and the grammar reforms of Josef Dobrovský. You’d be hard pressed to come up with anything less inspiring for a child’s mind.
In geography, we kept on learning about this one little country, which towns have pig farms and how many motorways there are. Unrolling the same map every week. Inside, I felt like screaming, “Just show me the WHOLE map! The whole WORLD, please! Tell me about riding camels with the Touareq in Tombouctou. Tell me what it feels like to canoe in the Amazon among piranhas. Tell me something about that funny place on the bottom side of the globe called Tierra del Fuego. Do people live there? What do they look like? Show me something I don’t know!” I wanted to go and explore and they wouldn’t let me.
But now I’m an adult and I can, and it feels awesome.
2 comments:
Well lucie, you take beautiful photo's and I love your comments. I was looking for interesting places to sight see in London.You were a lovely diversion. A diary is a wonderful thing to keep.I always keep one, full of tiny scraps of life to recall.
I will be dressed as a crusader running the London marathon on 17th.In aid of Douglas MacMillan Hospice here in Stoke-on-Trent.
Will be stopping at an Hotel in Victoria on saturday going to mass at Westminster Catherdral 6.00pm.So need to do all sight seeing before.It will be a busy afternoon.
God Bless and all the best.
Hi John,
nice to hear that you had a pleasant detour to my blog, even if I haven't been writing about sightseeing that much lately!
Good luck with the marathon, I really admire people who do that! I've heard it's one of the worst things you could possibly do to your body. :o) One of my close friends is a marathon runner, so I've heard all sorts of funny stories, like "Don't forget to put Vaseline on your nipples or they will bleed!"
Enjoy your trip to London.
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