Travellers

Photo by fLeMmA

I have travelled overseas on two occasions.

My family went to Canada when I was very young, and we went to England when I was in my mid-teens.

Due to the younginess of me, I recall few things of Canada, here they are:

* I recall it being quite clean, almost crisp.

* I remember watching Sesame Street and some of the cartoon segments were in a different language - probably French.

* I spent a good hour examining every inch of a Kool-Aid packet and the cartoon on the back that depicted some kind of Kool-Aid house, with skate ramps, Kool-Aid pools and other outlandish accoutrements. To my young brain it seemed like a mythical place and I was enthralled. My subsequent drinking of the Kool-Aid was a disappointment, as it was just a drink, not a gateway to a magical world of sugar-filled awesome.

* Subway! A train underground? I felt like an X-Man.

* Whereas I'm sure my parents recall the countryside and things like that, I remembered an amazing playground a block from where we stayed.



We went to England to visit distant family and generally check the place out. I had one, singularly important mission - to get a Red Dwarf t-shirt. The chorus of my brother and I asking when we could get such a t-shirt permeated the holiday and I'm sure impressed my mother no end. Eventually, after a hurried shuffle throughout London, we found some, and all was well.

I remember being amazed at the closeness of everything. Australia is very big, and in Broken Hill you spend a long time driving before getting anywhere else.

At that age I still generally believed that I was the centre of everything and had failed to consider that other places could be different. When the family we stayed with announced a drive to the seaside I inwardly groaned, imagining a voyage of 'is this India then?' proportions.

"How long a drive is it?" I asked, trying to appear in no way fretful.

"Well, it's a bit over an hour if we head east, and a wee bit more if we go west."

My mind was blown. Villages occurred every few minutes, a stark contrast to my previous experiences of endless desert punctuated only by the unfortunate corpses of our country's most recognisable fauna.

Of course, when we got to the beach it was overcast and freezing, so I feel like I got a good British experience.

I was also amazed to discover that the day's length varies with the seasons in England. We went in summer and the sun did not set until 10pm, so I found it impossible to go to sleep until well after midnight. The thought of winter walks home from school in the dark seemed somewhat terrifying to me, and I began to imagine that Doctor Who - a touchstone of British culture in my mind - may have been a documentary after all.

We spent a week travelling the lochs. Adults lazily sailed the skinny streams while we young ones walked alongside with large keys resembling cranks to open and close loch gates, thereby equalising the water level on both sides. It was much fun, but I feel like I walked across the entire continent.



I bring up these scintillating recollections as, some may have noticed, I've added two new blogs to the links on the bottom right of the blog.



AC's Travel Blog belongs to my friend - wait for it - AC. Next week he heads off to Canada and beyond and will be endeavouring to blog his experiences along the way. His last trip was chronicled on Myspace and was always a good read, with depictions of everything from historical sites and hockey scores to how many people in LA dress as Spiderman.

So over the next few months, join my in some vicarious global living, won't you?

Once he returns I'll leave the blog up there as another trip is inevitable. The man is perpetually travelling, saving for travelling or lamenting the recent end to travels. I sometimes worry that we are only friends because in a certain light my unfortunately-shaped head resembles a guidebook.



Also new is Aaron's Assonant Adventures in Australia. Aaron is an American whose acquaintance I have recently acquired.

He has moved to Broken Hill from the US and is giving his view on Australian culture and his experiences. It's a great read and a fascinating view for an Australian reader. We do, as he says, say 'I reckon' a lot. Read it mate.