Armchair Travelling

Since I have not been able to travel much this past year, due to travelling for half of the previous year, I have had to fuel my thirst for travel with a bit of armchair travelling. Armchair travelling for me, is in the form of some great travel literature. This past year I have managed to travel around Central America, Spain, Italy, Indonesia and India, vicariously through my books.

I am currently reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, which not only takes us on a journey through Italy, India and Indonesia, but also through body, mind and soul. It is a great read for us travel enthusiasts, but also an inspirational tale for those of us going through difficult times in their lives. Elizabeth Gilbert shares with us her inner most desires, fears and conflicts and shows us that we are not alone in breaking down when our world’s collapse around us. She shows us that inner strength one can get through travelling and that it is always possible to over come adversity and to be happy in our lives.

This past year I have also read Travels on the Dance Floor by Grevel Lindop, one man’s journey to the heart of salsa. Lindop undertakes a journey through Central America learning a new type of salsa dancing in each one. His descriptions of Central America’s capital cities are vivid; as are the descriptions of the wonderful people he meets along the way.

Another great book, or trilogy of books are the Driving Over Lemons series by Chris Stewart, and although very popular a few years ago I hadn’t read them until recently. When I started reading I couldn’t imagine how I would want to read more than one book about a man starting up a farm in southern Spain, but Stewart writes in such an engaging and sometimes comical way that I found myself wanting to read on and on about his life on the farm.  I even found myself becoming interested in the things he was growing and methods he was using. I highly recommend.

Tip: When travelling, look at Lonely Planet’s guidebooks for great travel literature. When I travelled around South East Asia I did this for almost every country I visited and I began to appreciate each place even more, having read about the peoples who live there, the country’s history, troubles and triumphs.