To Roam The Lands Like A Spirit Free

Farzana and Twisha liked a photo of the Eiffel Tower on Facebook and that was enough to send me off on yet another tizzy of uncontrollable wanderlust.

Somewhere along the way I woke up to the fact that without even realizing it, I have been dreaming of going to Paris all my life, not because it is the city of love and I am sappy but because I'm a true Arian who loves the quaint, adventurous, classic beauty of the city in all the photos and pictures that I hungrily devour with my eyes.
Some say Paris is over rated. But I don't think that's the case at all. Or it might just be the images of luxurious opulence that is the Champs Elysees playing tricks on my mind. 

Actually, its not just Paris, it is the whole of Europe with its exotic, alluring charm, quaint accents and wonderous cuisine that draws me into its never-ending loop of storybook beauty, the kind that I grew up reading about and dreaming of.

I'm finding hard to resist the wanderlust as the days go by. I stalk travel blogs silently, envying the creators, wishing I was them. I fear that one day, it might just get too much for me to handle, that I will blow my ties to the world away to pack up and leave...

....in search of all the breathtaking, mind blowing, spectacular cities that I so so yearn to roam.

What I fear even more is that I might be buried one day, some day without having my breath taken and my mind blown, in which case, the photos will be everything and all that I'd have seen in a lifetime.

I leave you with a few images, take one look and tell me they don't make you sigh for lands unknown. If they don't, then you have yet to experience the deep, relentless pull of wanderlust that can make you sigh like no kind of lovesickness can.

Spain - Of fiery bulls, beautiful women and the above.

Rome - Grandeur. Period.

Ireland - Oh, the castles! *sigh*

Portugal - Complete with cobbled pavements and a fruit market in the distance

England - The picture has so less, yet says so much to me

Italy - Tell me, your breath caught. Do tell me.

Paris - My beloved darling, my muse on even the least creative days

Venice - How can this not be the best way to travel?

15 Day Challenge: Day 10

A Place That Gives Me Wanderlust

Picking one place would be blasphemous for me: like any true Arian, I want to spend my life and a fortune in travelling everywhere from the sun-kissed beaches of Florida, the tiny pizzerias near Sorronto to our own Janpat, Delhi, Chowpatty in aamchi Mumbai, the ice-floats of Reykjavik, the dark jungles of Central Africa and the fierce deserts of Queensland and New South Wales. Sigh, if only it were that simple.


The bug bit me when I was doing a travel assignment: I had to prepare an itinerary for a person travelling around the world, touching every country and visiting at least fives tourist places in each one. As you can imagine, it was a HUGE amount of work, but the best part was that I enjoyed every, single, tiny bit of it. I have never had more fun collecting pictures, making route maps, deciding on the spots and the rest of the whole deal. I fell in love with the world and wanderlust had my heart in its steely grip. 


That was also when I promised myself I would somehow, someday go visit at least a third of those places in my lifetime. 

Anyway, one place that gives me an urge to damn the rest of the world to the Devil and just take off is South Africa. Grandpa, Discovery and NatGeo have done their duties very well indeed: the images of the powerful black panther, slinking just beyond eyereach, the colorfully eerie tribal dances, the tongue-click that is part of African names and the strange accents, all haunt my dreams. So much to do, so much to see. Night safaris with the lions' eyes gleaming in the headlights, gazelle running, or rather flying, past, the deserts of scorching days and icy nights, the people engulfed by poverty, death and disease yet a part of a culture so intricately woven into their lives that they come second only to my own, the scores of rapids that take you right into the heart of mysterious Africa.... I can go on. 

Not even the most enlightened man on Earth can dare say that he has understood Africa in it's entirety. 


The craving was only stoked into a raging fire by Williard Price's Hal and Roger Hunt series, Joy Adams' Born Free and Living Free, innumerable magazines, documentaries, the FIFA '10 and Shakira (Waka, waka).


And for SA, wanderlust is an understatement.   


10 down, 5 to go:)