April 23, 2003

Compare and Contrast

I finally understand why tourists go beserk over kangaroos when they visit Australia. Until a month ago I'd never been up from Down Under, so I had no idea what this stranger in a strange land caper was all about.

Then last week I was on a dinky little bus tour through the Scottish Highlands. I'd never been so utterly gobsmacked by the beauty of a place. The landscape was so unlike the red heat and dry that I've always known. I gawked at the snow on the mountains and squealed over those funny hairy cows as my camera clicked madly, trying to capture the colours and scale of it all.

We walked through hills, bouncing along on the peat. I couldn't stop grinning. I'd become one of those over-excited tourists that I'd always scoffed at. But now I see why someone could go cuckoo over a koala. It's just such a thrill to see something new, so unlike anything you've ever seen before.

Posted by shauny at April 23, 2003 07:05 PM
Comments

There's a distance factor involved, though. I discovered that when I lived in NZ for a while - sheep are lovely, fluffy dots on a hillside when seen from a distance. Up close they're not quite as attractive; it's like you're supposed to be seeing them from a perspective that isn't like the everyday. Spending time in the country makes you inured to cows, say, but go for a car trip and see a lovely Freisian out the window and you'll probably go "oooh!" every time - because it's outside your everyday frame of reference.

I guess really is about the way you view things. When I first moved to London, I couldn't help but notice the architecture, the overload of design styles beating against each other. Six months later, I just noticed all the fuckers in my way along Oxford Street. Likewise, when I returned home to Sydney on a visit, a year or so into my OS stay, I realised that, for the first time since I'd lived there, you could smell the sea from a pub at the top of Oxford Street.

I'd never noticed it before becuase I wasn't seeking it, because I was complacent or caught in the everyday grind of stuff. And that's what travelling does, maybe; breaks you out of that and makes you go look at this! You might've seen it every day, but were you looking?

Turns out that for the most part, I wasn't.

Posted by: Luke at April 24, 2003 12:55 AM

Yep, you don't know what you've got til it's gone. Now, living where I do, about as far away from any ocean as is possible, I remember distinctly how you can either see, smell or feel the sea from almost anywhere in Sydney. I guess, other than compulsive travelling, it just takes a little bit of discipline not to take things for granted, wherever you are, no matter what's happening.

Posted by: chris at April 24, 2003 05:31 AM

highland cows are so adorable. and adorable is not usually an adjective i'd just in reference to a cow. :o)

Posted by: Kristen at April 25, 2003 03:27 PM