Il viaggiatore riflette sul perchè dei propri viaggi, e del viaggio in generale. Se un perchè non ve lo siete mai chiesti, probabilmente siete più dei vacanzieri che dei viaggiatori. Ogni viaggio è sempre un po’ metaviaggio.
Io ho provato a dare due generiche, ma personali, risposte al perchè viaggio qui e qui, ma non le considero risposte definitive. Forse per questo ho amato molto le ultime righe di Neither here nor there di Bill Bryson. Tra queste righe ho ritrovato un sentimento a me molto familiare, che è forse l’inconscia risposta alla domanda “Perchè viaggio?”.
And I was, I admit, ready to go. I missed my family and the comfortable familiarities of home. I was tired of the daily drudgery of keeping myself fed and bedded, tired of trains and buses, tired of existing in a world of strangers, tired of being forever perplexed and lost, tired above all of my own dull company. How many times in recent days had I sat trapped on buses or trains listening to my idly prattling mind and wished that I could just get up and walk out on myself?
At the same time, I had a quite irrational urge to keep going. There is something about the momentum of travelling that makes you want to just keep moving, to never stop. That was Asia, after all – right there in my view. The thought of it seemed incredible. I could be there in minutes. I still had money left. An untouched continent lay before me.
But I didn’t go. Instead I ordered another Coke and watched the ferries. In other circumstances I think I might have gone. But of course is neither here nor there.
