Tag Archives: Travel

Time Pressure – The Clock is Ticking

Old Town Hall & Astrological Clock - Prague

Old Town Hall & Astrological Clock – Prague

Since leaving my life as a professional I seem to have had time but not at the moment.

In the last couple of weeks I have felt the pressure of the clock. For the first time since I embarked on “What’s Next”, I have felt the constant pressure of the ticking of the clock.

I am about to hit my first progress report for my PhD with a half written proposal. It seemed such a long way off when I started this journey in early March. Then there is preparing papers to present at two conferences  in California in early August. The deadline for these is just days away.

Our short trip to California for these conferences looms large. We leave in 7 days. I feel far from the relaxed self that The Diary of a Slow Traveler has portrayed. Our recent travels have given us the opportunity to luxuriate in our travel plans, selecting accommodation and places to visit. Not this time! Bookings through a travel agent and all the restrictions that come with that. Time constraints necessitating just 2 weeks away and then being tied to conference locations which not unpleasant are far from what I’d describe as the life of a Slow Traveler.

Perhaps the most interesting has been the realization that in recent weeks I haven’t had time for my blog. Each time I have thought about a post, I’ve had the clock ticking in the background and the ever present feeling that I don’t have time for this. So annoying!

I feel quite guilty grabbing the 15 minutes to write this post – tick, tick, tick

 

Big Ben - London

Big Ben – London

 

 

 

 

The diary of a Slow Traveller – Walking the streets, Siracusa, Sicily

The very nature of  Slow Travel is that you can establish a daily routine because there is no  need to race to the next new thing.

Over our weeks in Sircausa our daily routine became a leisurely walk through the streets of the Island of Ortigia and its  nearby mainland. Siracusa is a place that has  seen so much over more than 20 centuries. it was something that we came to appreciate as we walked the streets each and every day.

These shoes are made fro walking!

These shoes are made for walking!

While our daily routine almost always started in search of a coffee and a pastry  we were always captivated by  Ortigia’s narrow streets that were laid out centuries ago.

Who else has walked these streets?

Who else has walked through this archway?

These are streets that Plato quite possibly walked. It was amazing to imagine Archimedes having walked the same streets pondering some problem as we sought to solve the difficult problem of where to go for our morning coffee!

2015-12-22 13.57.44 HDR

Did Archimedes walk down here?

Reading the guides or Jeremy Dummett’s book about Siracusa makes it impossible not to wonder whose footsteps we were retracing as we walked to coffee or just meandered through these narrow streets. In one of these streets Archimedes was murdered. Continue reading

The Diary of a Slow Traveller

image

Slow travel is quite simply not being in a hurry. Slow Travel happens when you don’t have a deadline or timeline hanging over you.

It’s about taking your time to get somewhere and when you do, taking the time to appreciate it. It is as a fellow blogger put it “being where you are, not about what you do”. It’s about soaking in the experience because Slow Travel is a state of mind.

Why would someone become a Slow Traveller? In part the perfect response is because they can. The time for Slow Travel is when you don’t have to be somewhere anytime soon. What “soon” means is upto you! Continue reading

Singapore – nearly home

image

Sitting in the Qantas Lounge in Singapore meant that our  “3 months in Italy” was all but over.

Singapore was the bookend to our travels. Just on three months ago we arrived in Singapore as a stopover with our “3 months in Italy” ahead of us. Now sitting in Changi Airport, Singapore we are just about home.

With a few thousand photos in the Cloud, many half written posts I realize how much we have seen and how much there is to reflect on. I plan to not let our time away be quickly forgotten, adopting the rule of thinking about at least one thing that we saw, did or felt each day for as long as I can after we get home. I’m sure that will mean many more posts.

IMG_3560

Singapore is pretty much everything Italy isn’t and provides a circuit breaker for our return to Australia.

Singapore is modern and moves at pace. Continue reading

Out and about in Rome – Frascati

Villa

Villa Aldobrandini, Frascati

Continuing with a desire to expand our horizons away from the heart of The Eternal City we decided to “Do as the Romans Do” and go to Frascati for the day, or more particularly for lunch.

Frascati is a small town located about 30 minutes by train from Rome. It is a favourite amongst the inhabitants of Rome to get away from the heat in summer or for an evening meal. Judging by the number of teenagers that shared our train ride it’s also a favourite place to get away from your parents on a Saturday afternoon.

After a late breakfast we caught the metro to Rome Termani and decided to walk around the up and coming Monti district which is located near the station.

Making us acutely aware of how much the world had changed in recent months each metro station had members of the army inside with hands on their machine guns. I’m pretty sure that they are not there to stop fare evaders!

imageMonti was once a poor area but is now quite trendy. Just the place for people like us. There are new modern bars and coffee shops and for the first time in months we saw food that was not just Italian . I saw a coupe fo Indian Restaurants and had instant cravings! Monti is also home to sone very trendy boutiques that immediately caught my favourite person’s eye as well as my daughter’s back in Australia with the benefit of WhatsApp.

There was lots of browsing in the boutiques but no purchasing. Continue reading