Was watching a new Henry Rollins Spoken Word tour DVD. He started to talk about travel, and he hit it. He described almost to the “T” why and how I travel:
“As I’m working away, I see Christmas looming closer and closer. I want to do something eventful for Christmas, I’m not going to put a tree in my apartment and put lights on it. I’m just too fucking lazy and apathetic. And so I just need to go somewhere for Christmas. I do not believe in going somewhere on a holiday or a vacation just to sit in some place where the skin will damage my poor pale pasty white skin, and I don’t want to live in a hotel doing the same thing when I’m home, watching MacGiver on rerun. I want something that will educate me. I want to out into the world and learn a thing or two. I think we as a species; we need to travel more. All of you need to leave your country on a regular basis. Trust me your country will still be here when you get back. I just think it’s important for people to go to countries where they’re not familiar, where they definitely look like they’re not from there, they need to eat food that they cannot pronounce the name of, listen to music that they can’t understand, and shake the hands of everyone and say crazy things like, “Hey! What’s going on?” I think we need to do this more often, thus we become xenophobic, living a boring, flat-lined, fucked up life. This is why I travel. To get cultured. So where can I go get cultured for Christmas? Well, I don’t want to do it in Florida, or Hawaii to get cultured on a hammock, with a “cervesa” and a laptop burning a design of an apple into my chest. I want to go someplace else.
And so on one evening on my way to the movies, I come up with where I’m going to go for Christmas. I’m like, “ohhh, this is fantastic!” And the idea of it terrifies me, “I could die. I shouldn’t go there. I have to go there!” And I don’t understand this thing with me. This Psych 101 thing. I get this idea to go somewhere, and the next thing I hear is my voice, “If you don’t go, you’re a pussy. If you do not go to this place, you do not deserve to eat. If you do not go, you are fucking worthless.” And it becomes fairly obsessive.
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Next thing I know, I’m in my home away from home, Los Angeles International Airport. I go from Los Angeles to Heathrow International airport, and from Heathrow for my Christmas break…aaahhhh. Inthralling, sparkling, urbanite, cosmopolitan, Islamabad Pakistan! I just figured a guy could learn a thing or two.
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Once I got there, I do what I always do. I dropped my bag, grabbed my water, and started pounding the streets walking around. I have a plan when I do all these trips. The first half is, “I’m Going!” The second half is, “I have no idea, not a fuckin’ clue what happens next.” And that is the difference between being a tourist, and being a traveler. A traveler doesn’t know where he’s going. The tourist doesn’t know where he is.
And so that’s what I like to do. I like to walk through cities, and say crazy things like, “Hi, I’m Henry. I’m from America. I’m really glad to be here.” And see what happens.”
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