I didn't think that I wouold find time to do much reflection or thinking about my trip, the direction I am taking or my life in general while I am off on this uber long holiday of mind. Well, I did manage to sneak in a couple of minutes here and there whilst I was nodding off to sleep on the train as it was rushing off to another city or a second or two as I waited for the water to heat up as I stood in the shower... A bit too much information there... but anyway... I didn't think I'd find the time to all that at all.
However, after a rather long, detailed yet extremely enjoyable tour of the museums and chapel of the Vatican, I found sometime to be alone and think about the stuff that I felt I needed to think and reflect about.
I have travelled prior to this Europe trip. I always thought that the stuff I read and learnt about in school and off the net were sufficient enough for me to learn about that big big world around us. I was pretty happy doing the things I did, learning the things I learnt and just satisfied with the way things were going in my what-I-thought-was safe perfect world. Now here I am on the longest trip of my life (for now I hope...), halfway across the world sitting at the computer of my hotel in a rather ulu part of Rome, my mind still numb and spinning from the flurry of new experiences, sights and sounds of the people and places around me.
I have walked the bridges of Venice, strolled across the open square in the Vatican, took silly photos with the leaning tower of Pisa and got pickpocketed on the train from Zurich... (Yes Nic... that was the tragedy I was talking about...). I am even more fortunate to have done this with some really close friends of mine and this makes everything I am doing right now just that little bit sweeter.
I sat in one of the chapels in St Peter's Balisca today just reflecting on all this and everything I have done thus far in my 22 years on this planet. In all honesty, I could have done all this thinking in my bathroom back home but I must admit... self reflection in a Chapel in a 2000 year old church in the smallest nation state in the world, above the foundation of the Church as it is today (freethinker here by the way...) sure makes self-reflecting a whole lot more dramatic and... clearer in a different way. Taking all that and comparing it with the deeds of the great characters of history which I have come to learn about on my trip, they pale greatly in comparison.
I don't think I'll ever see things in the same light they once were ever again. That being said... I really miss the Blk 85 pork noodles... just as much as Norman misses his fei fei wanton mee I guess... haha... Till the next entry :)
