Travelling...

Sometimes I think it is not the places and sites that makes travelling so special but the people you meet. take Jakob for example. He is swiss but emigrated to Capetown when he was 30. That was some 35 years ago. He also brought his wife to Southafrica. Apparently she always felt homesick and so went back some 4-5 years ago. Since then the couple leads a long-distance relationship. A happy one, as Jakob states. Once in a while he visits her. He had just spent half a year with her. the distance between Southafrica and Swiss Jakob covered over land ! it took him 8 months to come up the eastern coast of the African continent. His way back (that was when I met him) he wants to travel in only 4 months. This 65 year old man travels all by himself, half way a tramp, through the whole African continent. What a spirit! His pension years will be everything but not boring I guess. We met in Damascus where we shared a dorm. One day he was gone without prior notice. I didn’t even have the chance to ask for his e-mail address. But that is pretty much what happens when you travel. People, beautiful people, appear all of a sudden and then disappear without leaving a trace but in our hearts. Moments with them are precious and ephemeral, there is no way we can seize the moment. All there is to do is to live it at present. right here, right now.