Once in a while you meet someone you didn’t quite expect and that person ends up imprinting a part of themselves onto you, whether they were intending to or not. And yet, you walk away from that experience being extremely grateful.
(more…)Travel
Read stories and reflections from my travels.
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The Little Black Book of Travels
I enjoy traveling. It’s not just for the experiences and seeing new places and things, but for the mental space to think that it provides. Ever since my first international trip, I’ve kept a written journal of events and reflections from those adventures. It’s a great way to remember details about what you saw and did, but also a good time to document what’s happening in your life.
Whenever I get away from home, I start seeing things more clearly. So it’s been important for me to find some time daily to sit down and write about anything. Each trip, I usually start with a new journal and this time is no different. This year, I have my “little black book” for my more personal reflections and thoughts that rarely get shared. I recently went back to read through my 2011 sabbatical journal and was instantly transported back to so many fond memories and places I visited. I even was reminded of scents and weather where I had sat in parks or cafes to write.
Even if you don’t consider yourself an avid writer, I’d recommend everyone have their own traveling little black book to document your adventures, no matter how sparse or dense the details may be for you. These written journals turn out to be great keepsakes and a better way to go back and remember compared to your social media posts or public blog posts.
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#EuroGreg2016
I guess I can’t go a full calendar year to pass without traveling somewhere that doesn’t touch Illinois’s borders. (Sorry Missouri, you’re cool but since we’re neighbors that trip doesn’t count as getting away.)
Today, I head out for almost two weeks of travel through Europe with scheduled stays in the following places:
- Pinneberg, Germany (not far from Hamburg)
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Reykjavik, Iceland
I’m looking forward to seeing friends in Germany and exploring their hometown, along with seeing Amsterdam for the 1st time. Iceland will be a short stay, but much like seeing Sigur Ros again in concert, I suspect my short time there will feel like a mini-homecoming. The connection in that country was deep and was already there before I ever stepped foot on their land.
Since I will be traveling solo, similar to my sabbatical five years ago, expect to see some updates here on the WUGO blog with reflections either related to my travels or just to life. There are many revelations about life back home once I fly a few thousand miles away from it.
Whenever I post about the trip, I am going to be using the hashtag #EuroGreg2016. It will be an easy way to filter through posts on most social media platforms for what I’m sharing relating to my travels or if it’s something different altogether. Photos will be posted sparingly during the trip with more shared later. If you want to follow along, you can do so in the following place:
- Visit this blog regularly (or subscribe via email for notifications)
- Instagram – @gregmacek
- Twitter – @gmacek
- Snapchat (yes, I use it) – add me @doclloyd16
Thanks to T-Mobile’s free international data & text roaming, I’ll be able to share relatively easily wherever I’m at.
I’m looking forward to a couple of weeks away “on holiday.” Life is always interesting and rarely sits still, but like the last few years, it has provided unique challenges in some areas. Where appropriate, I will be sharing some things here. Stay tuned for more!
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Finding Purpose in the Wilderness
I wrote about some of this in my “secret” journal during the trip (see featured image above), but there is a magical transformation that occurs when you are in the presence of creation in its purest forms where the hands of men have not yet or are unable to claim mastery over it for his own personal gains. You are immediately brought down to size and realize you are but a tiny part of a much bigger, grander world.
Going to a new place always provides space to figure out what’s important in my life. It’s like a big filter in the shape of plane tickets, breathtaking landscapes, new (but sometimes very old) city streets to walk down, and new cultures where I don’t speak the native language.
I read that Iceland is one of the most educated countries in the world with greater than 99% literacy rate. Creativity and art are strongly encouraged and engrained into the culture, so there is a lot of writing and art being created on a regular basis. I was impressed and humbled by how many books I saw everywhere we visited from coffee shops to more sit-down style restaurants even. Designs on sides of buildings even had huge books on them. It’s clear this country like to read and write. I very much respect it and desire for a similar thing to happen back in the United States. It also reminded me to read and write more.
Yet one of the things I was curious about is how much of the backdrop of their lives has fueled their way of thinking and their desire and ability to create so much. Even within the Keflavik airport, there were wonderful quotes from various authors that speak in such poetic language I was moved to stop and reflect in a place that is usually filled with angst and tension of running late for anywhere but where you’re at.
I hoped to find that magic while I visited to spark a new level of creativity in thoughts and in writing. Even months after visiting, that desire to create has seasoned much of my day to day thinking and actions. To allow for this, it will mean that I need to balance out my time between being inundated in an information, media rich, distraction filled world and find my wilderness space to compile my thoughts and to craft a blog post, edit that photo just so, to reimagine that work project. So while I still (and will likely continue to) consume an inordinate amount of media content, my goal is to be more producer than consumer.
The wilderness gives us room to evaluate everything that matters – and that which doesn’t. Though I wonder if we need to be careful not to spend too much time there lest we go crazy….
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Memoirs of a Glacier
I learned a lot about glaciers and how life in Iceland is very directly shaped and influenced on a regular basis by the earth and weather patterns that surround people there. And I will be the first to say that I do not remember everything I heard or saw on this trip, but some elements do stand out from our day trip to [actual name of national park] and the Ice Caves tour.
Glaciers are big. I mean really, really big. So much so that you cannot fathom the size of it as you stand at the edge of one it becomes more awe inspiring to know that this huge “sheet” of ice holds within it not just frozen water, but parts of mountains, trees, likely animal remains, volcanish ash (maybe exclusive to Icelandic glaciers), and other parts of the earth that couldn’t get out of its way.
Glaciers are affecting the world around it while it appears to sit there like a big, frozen glacier-shaped log. As they move and/or melt, what remains after are what many area of the world now live on. They have flattened out vast spaces in their melted wake. But they also hold down the earth under it, even pulling nearby hills and small mountains physically down with its incredible weight. (Don’t try finding a scale. Glaciers don’t like to talk about their weight.) So as it melts and loses even small fractions of its mass, Iceland itself is actually rising from the relief of the cold burden at a rate of up to 1.5cm/year. Insane!
Glaciers affect weather patterns around the world acting as a stingy bank who would prefer not to let us withdraw from its deposits. And yet here we are marketing glacier water as a great drinking source. I suddenly feel just the smallest tinge to yell “save the glaciers, save the world.”
Glaciers are really pretty from far away and up close.
The edge of the glacier! 
The ice caves at the edge of the glacier. So. Beautiful. I thought there may be some good life lesson to be found here. Perhaps there is a lesson about some big things do change us, but in very small ways and steps that aren’t immediately apparent if we stand back and take stock of who we were and who we are now. Maybe there’s a glacier in your life now that you want to rid yourself of because you feel like it’s holding you down, but in reality it’s providing a stable environment we don’t appreciate until it’s gone and things go haywire.
Or maybe this post will just be about glaciers and how cool they are. [See what I did there? That’s some solid wordplay. Because glaciers are cool. And solid. OK, I’m stopping now.]
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Sabbatical flashback: This time it’s personal
I struggled over what to share next in this sabbatical flashback series of blog posts. Ultimately, I decided to go a little deeper into my experiences and my personal journal I kept during the trip. This time it’s personal.
A year ago this week I was into my second week in Prague. For new readers, this was decidedly the low point of the entire trip. For most of the second week I fell ill with food poisoning or something else that kept me down. My trips to the cheap Chinese restaurant near the hostel and bar visits came to a complete standstill as just about everything I ate that wasn’t bland disagreed with me. I spent the majority of that second week in Prague finding plain breadsticks, crackers or saltine equivalents, plain rice, and lots of water. The little I did eat still brought upon sensations internally I did not appreciate. Suffice to say I did not venture far from the hostel those days.
Nobody likes being sick. However, being sick away from everything you are familiar with amplifies everything that’s wrong with the world. Whatever is hiding beneath the surface of your exterior begins to make itself known. Emotions are raw and small triggers can set off a wave of thoughts and concerns that normally are well suppressed. I had too much time to avoid anything bubbling up.
Approaching the mid-way part of this trip, I was realizing that in spite of my strong introverted nature and appreciation of time to myself, I was not alone, but lonely. Leading up to this trip, I was increasingly doing stuff on my own, whether doing prep at work after hours organizing projects and documentation to planning lodging and locations to be in Europe, I was increasingly flying solo. Because nobody else around me was doing anything remotely similar, everything took on this feeling of an adventure that only I was called to do. (OK, it’s all kind of true.) It was like there wasn’t anybody around me I could relate to about this trip – and seemingly many facets of my life. Like I said, being sick amplified a lot. I told myself I’d make changes upon returning to the US about spending more quality, intentional time with people. But that in itself doesn’t automatically fix how I feel.
I do believe there are phases in life that where we must go will be a solo journey and it will feel lonely. Sometimes I think I’m still in that phase and journey that is very much mine. Hopefully the end of this specific journey will yield new insights and relationships with people who I can travel with.
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Sabbatical flashback: Breaking for direction
Upon one of my first of many non-directed wanderings through the streets of Prague, I came upon this scene of these two guys sitting on the sidewalk up against a building. They appeared to be looking at a travel guide probably because they found themselves lost in the winding, non-grid street system. I did this plenty of times after walking for a while after losing my sense of direction. A few times I would find myself in a sense of deja vu after coming upon the same streets because I walked in circles. Although I always tried to be discreet about my map review so I didn’t look too touristy. I’m sure my orange camera messenger bag helped me blend right in.
At first glance, the scene itself isn’t anything special. It was on a quiet side street where few people where walking that afternoon. What caught my eye is the gentleman on the right appeared to have Down’s Syndrome. As some readers may know, my older brother has Down’s. In an instant I was drawn back home. This small part of life in Prague reminded me a little bit of where I came from and of my own life. Perhaps if I was a bit more adventurous or able to speak Czech, I would’ve stopped to have a conversation and learn more about these men. Instead, I leave this image below to our imagination about their conversation and lives.
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Sabbatical Flashbacks
It’s hard to believe it’s almost been a full year since I ventured to Europe for a month away from everything here at home. Perhaps it’s the busyness of work lately or the influx of cooler autumn air, but I find myself reminiscing about that time away and wanting to go back sooner than later.
Stay tuned for some sabbatical flashbacks in the coming weeks as I travel back through photos and memories.