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T2* Teggatz.com |
On
the Bolivian frontier with my sister, June 2005.
Thailand, at the ferry
to Ko Samet, Dec. 2004
wanderlust*
* “The real travelers are
those who leave for the sake of leaving.”
(Baudelaire)
* "Unless I sample life’s dangers I shall never
know its mysteries…”
(John LeCarre, Tinker
Tailor Soldier Spy).
Sometimes somebody will be indelicate enough to
ask me what I “do.” Aside from being an academic, I am a traveler. I have wanderlust. Traveling is my true calling, what I spent all
my money on, why I learned five languages, and why I do what I do. Nothing
disturbs me more than settling into the placid bourgeois lifestyle. I would rather
be in
What is wanderlust? It’s a fascination with maps and globes, foreign
languages, and travel guides. It’s a desire to experience the new, the exotic,
and the forbidden. Ernest Hemingway had wanderlust. So did Bror Blixen, Paul
Bowles, and Peter Beard. The great literary wanderer of our day is probably
Paul Theroux.
Wanderlust is an artistic and cultural condition. Without wanderlust, the
world is a lot smaller and more insular. Not everybody has the freedom to
wander the globe, but most people dream about it: going off into the unknown to
find adventure, experience, and maybe even riches. Wanderlust is when you live
more clearly through a different culture, because you have the fresh, clear
eyes of the foreigner.
Wanderlust is the love of the road, and the call of the sea. It’s the
promise of freedom or a fresh start. It’s humanity’s primal instinct to expand
out into fresh new horizons. It’s the escape from homogenization and
namelessness. People become different when they wander; they become a little
bolder, wilder, maybe even a little badder.
Wanderlust is when you dream of an empty beach in the South Pacific: just
you, sun, sea, and wind. It’s when you dream of the plains of
*Update 15 Feb. 04: I’ve been in the
*Update 18 Aug 05: I made it to
*Update 28 Sept 06: We’re heading to
*Update 9 June 2007: I ticked Egypt off the list below. Our next trip will
be to America. God to visit home occasionally. After that I’m heading out to Venice
or Paris. Indeed that may even happen this year.
Traveling
in Iceland in 2000.
Travels
I want to make
before I
die*
1.
2. South Africa
3. Madrid
4.
5. Tangier
6.
7. Vence
8. Angor Wat
9.
10. Machu Pitchu
11. Lake Titicaca
12. Rio (especially Carnival in
13. Oktoberfest in
14. Run with the bulls in
15.
16. Boat down the
17. Boat down the Amazon
18.
19. Cross the
20.
21. Ancient Egypt
22. The Marquesas
23. The
24.
25.
26.
27. The Himilayas
28.
29. My family ancestral lands in
Outside Angkor Wat in Siem
Reap,
My life
goals as a
traveler*
1. Set foot on every continent
2. Set foot in every ocean
3. Live abroad the bulk of my
life
4. Die in
With my wife on
the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia, Feb. 2006.
My apartment balcony in
My
travels so far*
1992:
1994:
1997:
1998: Road trip:
1999: Barcelona, Alicante, Madrid (Spain)
London
Brussels
2000:
2001:
2003:
2004:
Vientianne,
2005:
the
2006:
The Philippines
2007:
Egypt
Malate Church, Manila, with
my dad, July 2006.
South Africa, March 01,
visiting the Voortrekker
monument outside
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