Before the Eat Pray Love craze swept the nation (and this blog) there was Tales of a Female Nomad. In her moving travelogue of her 15 year journey across numerous continents and countries Rita Gelmans captures the dream of many armchair and part-time travelers as she wanders aimlessly without a plan through cultures and societies very different from her own. A children’s writer who earns enough to get by while on her journey by publishing new books and living frugally, her ability to make things happen is truly inspiring.
A confessed bibliophile, I always read multiple books at once. Reading Tales while I was reading Eat, Pray, Love was an interesting experience. I picked up both books when I was in Claremont, CA recently, and commenced to read them both immediately – one in the mornings and one at night. I was afraid I would get them confused during the reading, but found their voices so different that it never was a problem. These two writers, very different in style, age and locations (except Bali) address something universal that comes from traveling. Namely, the discovery of self. And this got me to thinking, isn’t that why we travel in the first place?
Even for those of us who are part time or armchair travelers, travel breaks us out of the daily grind, the ruts our wheels are stuck in, the practices which have become so easy to loose consciousness in. When we travel our routines are necessarily broken, our habits are forced to change and our lives are re-arranged. This is, I think, why we treasure travel and stories of travel so much. During those times when the ruts get so deep that we can’t break out of them, great travel writing gives us glimpses of the sunlight and reminds us that there is another way to live. Those chances we do get to break out of the everyday are when we can break into our very selves. I firmly believe that you never know who you are unless you’ve experienced cultures very different from your own, cultures that challenge the things you assume. This is both the gift and challenge of travel.
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I love your comment about travel writing being a glimpse of sunlight when we are deeply rutted. I find it to be very inspiring as well and read as much as I can. I loved Eat,Pray,Love and will definitely look up Tales of a Female Nomad.