For the Soulful Traveler
This Month's Featured Column About the Book - Traveler's Soul
Previous Columns (Archives) Email Steve Zikman
SEE AMERICAN 2002 Tour  
   

"There are only two kinds of fools:
those who have never climbed Mount Fuji,
and those who have climbed it more than once."

—Japanese Saying

BACK AGAIN
(posted 7/22/02)

Three years ago, I returned to two places I had already been--Italy and Germany.

I was last in the land of Puccini and pasta in 1982, too many years to have been away from such a splendid country. Back then, I was backpacking through Europe and spent two hurried weeks scurrying through Florence, Siena, Rome, and Capri. I also made it to Venice but I gave it only one day as there were other places to see and this city of canals didn't hold my youthful interest.

This time, I stayed with my dear friend Lisa and her family on a small farm just outside of Venice. This time I wanted great homecooked food, afternoon siestas, and time to absorb the color-drenched landscape. This time I wanted a slow, lazy existence with plenty of days to soak in the Venetian flavor. It had been seventeen years since my last visit and this time I wanted a different pace, a different perspective, a different taste of Italy.

In 1991-92, I lived and studied in Berlin. The Wall had fallen only a couple of years before and the city was starting to change. East was meeting West but the charm of this 'artistic haven' was still very present.

After I left, I continued to read about the dramatic evolution of Germany's new capital and felt compelled to see things for myself.

Indeed, much had changed. Thousands of new businesses had replaced dreary grey shell-ridden buildings. Potsdamer Platz, once a 'no-man's land' between the two Germanys and the site of a vast sprawling medieval festival that summer of '91, was now a melee of hundreds of construction cranes--the single largest construction site in Europe.

But then other things hadn't changed at all. The city's magnificent system of bicycle paths were exactly as I remembered them, intact and ready to whisk you around town with ease. I could still swim in Berlin's many idyllic lakes and run its myriad of forest trails. I could still sample a 'currywurst' (a local sausage heaped with ketchup and curry powder) at one of the small street stands.

The physical heart of Berlin had changed but its soul was much as I had experienced it seven years before.

Going back lets us reminisce and reassess. Going back helps us re-evaluate and refocus. Going back presents us with a new perspective. Going back offers us a richness and a depth that may not have been there before.

Travel at twenty and do the same trip at forty or sixty. It's never the same. Each of our travel experiences represents a unique set of encounters with people, places and events which never can be duplicated. We appreciate the time of our travels as much as our time of travel.

Where we choose to go depends on where we are in our lives, where we have been and where we want to be. Returning to places we have been is a way to measure our lives. We compare how the places have changed--and how we have changed. Going back is going forward.

Next time you leave a place, take a moment and think about how it might be in ten years, or twenty. Ask yourself some questions: What would draw you back? When would you like to return? What would you expect to see upon your return?

When planning your next trip, where would you most like to return? Is there a particular city or country that is calling you back? A special person or memory? Where did you barely skim the surface? Where did you need to explore some more?

Consider the needs of your soul. Which place would reconnect you with your youth? Have you visited your childhood home? Which place felt like home? Where did you feel the most passion?

Return. Reacquaint. Reconsider. Rediscover. What would you do differently this time?


Steve Zikman is the author of The Power of Travel: A Passport to Adventure, Discovery & Growth and coauthor of Chicken Soup for the Traveler’s Soul. To learn more about Steve’s books, visit his website at:
www.GOscape.com

Click here to read a sample of The Power of Travel.

To correspond with Steve, email him at:
soulfultraveler@GOscape.com

For information about Steve's speaking programs or to book Steve for your organization's next event, please call Cindy Bertram at 219-322-9186.


^ back to top

Copyright © 2001 Chicken Soup for the Soul® Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the authors.