Far Between Eastern Europe Part 1: Travel Broadens the Betweenness

In 2023, as the end of my undergraduate degree grew ever closer, I decided I wanted to use the time between my deadlines and the beginning of the summer holidays to travel. With this opportunity, I would be able to explore new and different places and find some new perspectives and experiences for my writing. Equipped with a 7 travel-day Interrail pass, I avoided the potential problems that my difficulty navigating the London Underground preempted. Then I looked into countries I wanted to visit, and the time it would take to travel between them. After some research, I decided that Eastern Europe would be the best location to experience a variation of culture, countries and history, while avoiding the popular, busier and more expensive Western countries. Soon I’d mapped out a route which traversed from Prague, down five other cities in five different countries until I reached Athens. Stopping in each country for a few days, I would attempt to grasp what life was like, and what influences made life that way. I asked myself what conflicts had shaped it? What allowed the place and the people to thrive? I hadn't travelled further than Cornwall for a fair few years, so I was prepared to be influenced by a change of scenery.

I also wanted to examine the relationship between tourist and foreign place. I would try my best to be within the places I travelled to, but there would be an inevitable language barrier where my attempts to use their pleasantries would fall short of learning each country's language. The English language was the closest to being universal in Europe due to colonialism, which would make starting a conversation with 'hello' a little trickier. Nevertheless, I would try my best to respectfully exist within, while remaining aware that I may always remain without. The state of being both within and without is rarely admirable. I recall an exception to this from my days studying sociology; overt observers would try to teeter between to gain some form of trust from those inside the observation. When your goal is to be within, knowing that you do not have the time to truly be, you must come to accept that some aspects of the self can permeate the within far more than others. See you next week for Sunday in Vienna.