AdventuresAbroad
-
“Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am large; I contain multitudes.” -Walt Whitman As I anticipated the next chapter of my life in Ireland from my remote suburban town north of Chicago, I imagined the world unfolding like a rosebud before me. I imagined my life abroad to resemble the…
-
On the 27th of February, over a feast of burgers, two variations of fries, and onion rings, my friend and I clinked pints of Berliners Pilsner to what we presumed to be our final night in Germany. It had been a reposeful four days, a brief but fulfilling holiday of exploration and food adventures. Apart…
-
“Be melting snow. Wash yourself of yourself.” -Rumi. When we were little, pain was as simple as a skinned knee or a vaccination at the annual doctor’s check-up. Pain was occasionally stomping our feet because we weren’t allowed to have any more candy. It was having to share our coloring books or our dollhouses, or…
-
“Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” -Seneca. Oxford is the kind of beautiful that places a gentle hand on your shoulder and urges you to take a seat, your eyes cast to its fawn colored edifices all the while. It’s the kind of beauty that coalesces past and present with such…
-
“Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you travelled.” -Mohamed. I believe we all possess the capacity to be magnificent story tellers, but perhaps those of us who have lived through daring adventures are the most proficient. It is not a measure of practice or skill; rather, it is a measure of life well lived. The…
-
“People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home.” -Dagobert D. Runes. I have a bitter tendency to demonize the familiar by claiming that there is nothing here for me. Once I’m out in the world, life will truly begin. There’s no beauty here, because it’s too close…
-
“If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears.” -Cesare Pavese. Traveling — really traveling — is daunting. It should scare you just enough to leave your fingers trembling against your plane ticket, just enough to leave you entirely unaware of what lies ahead, just enough…
-
London is difficult to put a finger on. In addition to being absurdly large in dimension with too many Tube stops going in too many directions, the city contains labyrinthian cobbled roads that seem to wind in on themselves, continually leading the wandering visitor back to where she started. All too easily, you could spend…
-
“She is free in her wildness, she is a wanderess, a drop of free water. She knows nothing of borders and cares nothing for rules or customs. ‘Time’ for her isn’t something to fight against. Her life flows clean, with passion, like fresh water.” -Roman Payne In a word: go. Go to Howth. Smell the…
-
Here is the latest thing I know to be true: London is as beautiful, idyllic, and indisputably captivating as I had imagined it to be. For nearly the first time, my wild, far-fetched expectations of something have been exceeded by its reality. Since last Sunday I’ve been walking the hallowed streets of London with a hand…
Eliana Jordan 
You must be logged in to post a comment.