What's the difference between me and you?

True story!!

After a very chilled out weekend, something had to give and it gave and I’m back to square one, Monday morning, moving promptly to the afternoon and time rolls on and on and it closer I’m getting for when I will be leaving, for its Japan I am bound, before going back to Europe.

It's interesting, some would say (but I won’t say that), let me explain, I saw someone’s Fail book profile last week, some people (mostly American) seem to think it’s impressive to quote the % of the world they've been to. We all know there are lies, absolute lies and statistics, don’t we? Well some don't? Or didn't, but you do now! What's the difference?

It's my world, my world, my world... sucker!

Let me explain, I’ve been to a lot of places in the world, in fact I would say, after Japan, I would be happy if I never travelled anywhere after that, but that is not the point. I go places I like, I don’t really have any agenda or schedule. Truth be told Jack Kerouac's book, 'On the road' has had a big impact on my attitude about traveling, in that you'll eat something, something will give and you'll get there, all you have to do is 'GO'!

One Korean chick I met in Chile said:

'Kieran, I know your travel style, your freestyle'

 Hmmm, maybe she was on to something? And now that I’ve been some where, done something and I have friends in these places, I’ll go back, Brazil of course being one of those places. Why not, i like them and the places too.

Now, If you go to go to, say Scandinavia as a tourist, it's all very nice, you see one side to the people, very nice, but if you work there, it's a different side, you have to learn their language, even though they speak better English than you ever did, it's a completely different experience, with different rules, if your not a tourist just passing through. You begin to see things about a culture a tourist will never see or experience.

When you go somewhere, your only getting a snapshot of that country on that year, it's political system and the people, you could go back 10 years later, different place a good case in point is Europe, the European union has totally transformed Europe, as far as I can see, I’m a European citizen first, then Irish secondly, and they you try to put a % on something that's constantly shifting?

I remember reading a book about Celtic Spirituality, called 'Anam Chara' by John Donahue

He says, there are the three things that make up who you essentially are:

1, Your language

2, Your Culture

3, The land your from and your connection to it

So, ideally, if you can get a better understanding of these 3 points when you go somewhere, you could be getting a better experience than someone taking so much video and photos, they don’t actually experience much (but don’t tell them that.)

Learning Spanish, was a big thing I wanted to do, and you'll only do this when you get away from English speakers and get out side your comfort zone, but if and when you do, it's worth it, one day your just speaking Spanish and it feels like you have scaled to the top of a mountain, a lot of people I met in South America weren’t interested in learning Spanish, only hanging out and that’s fine, if that's what your after.

Learning Spanish was part of a plan to start thinking in a new way and I did it too, I completely forgot who I was and it helped me speak clearer English too.

One guy told me there was nothing between Buenos Aires and the waterfalls on the border of Brazil and Argentina, it was an 18 hour bus ride, nothing of course if you don’t Speak Spanish, if you did speak Spanish, and you could be having the time of your life!! But most didn't speak anything and they were happy with nothingness, you live you learn.

Some seem to think you have to go somewhere to experience all this, the advantage of living in somewhere like Melbourne, is you can experience the world, right here and it's not more that a tram ride away.

I was thinking a good measure on the amount of travelling you've done, is when you go 'home' to were you grew up and it's a different place, 'Same same, but different'

A bit like the Lord Budda, under the tree, you have enlightenment, of sorts.

I had a very chilled out day yesterday, sunshine, music in the back yard, hanging out with Dave and my housemate Sam, good tunes, didn't need to go anywhere, didn't want to go anywhere, I was just happy being right there and there is a lot of comfort in that too.

In other news, I found 2 TV's on the street, to add to my collection, it's a bit like the Goldie locks story, only with TV's, I have a little one, medium one and a big one.

I later sold the medium one for $10, hey I’m a business man, just about everything in the house has been rescued from the street, it's becoming quite impressive, and my next sideline venture could be selling TV's!!

Bored yet? Switch the channel.