EVEN THOUGH WE CANNOT TRAVEL AS MUCH AS WE WOULD LIKE TO, WE KEEP FINDING WAYS TO GET OUT OF THE ROUTINE. BE IT BY DAYDREAMING OR EXPLORING OUR OWN GROUNDS.
“Travelling – it leaves you speechless and then turns you into a storyteller.” Ibn Battuta
Ibn Battuta was a Muslim Moroccan scholar, jurist and explorer who widely travelled the Old World. His journeying mainly occurred in the lands of Dar Al-Islam, and he was the explorer that travelled more than any other in pre-modern history. He wrote one of the world’s most famous travel logs, the Rihlah. His work describes people, places and cultures he encountered in the 120,000km spanned across and beyond the Islamic world.
Travelling is now one of the most praised leisure activities of the modern world, it is easy to visit every corner of the globe, you are just one flight or a couple of flights away from everywhere. Much, much easier than during Ibn Battuta’s times. However, Covid-19 changed this reality. We can’t just go to places as we could before or at least not with the same ease. There are restrictions and the fear of being infected.
So, we dream of travelling, making plans, and going on a voyage through the pages of a magazine or TV show. We explore our own countries, visiting places we would never go to, and experience spectacular staycations; yes, there are various hotels and resorts in our city that are worth a visit. We keep being astonished by new things, and we tell stories differently; we are human beings, we adapt.
So, what are the stories you are going to tell next?