A Picture Worth A Thousand Words

River scene, Cambodia

If ‘a picture is worth a thousand words,’ then thirty-five thousand pictures must be worth thirty-five million words! Maybe that explains why I haven’t been writing too many blog posts recently. Let me explain.

After four extended trips since 2008, that have taken me to America and Greece three times, France, twice, and England and Cambodia once each (as well a two week visit to Sydney, and six or seven month-long visits to Melbourne, Australia), I had amassed an enormous number of photographs and videos.

How many? More than 35,000 (4,000 of which are video clips). No, that larger figure is not a typo. Thirty-five thousand! Since my return in August from my last trip to Greece and France, I have spent more hours than I care to think about slowly going through my files and folders culling as many extraneous images as possible. I am now down to around 22,000 files. A few of them are now illustrating this post.

When I mentioned the number of files on my Facebook page, and wrote about the task of sorting through and deleting the doubles and the duds, one of my acquaintances left the following comment: “You can take so many pics you don't see anything.”

Largs Bay sunset, Adelaide

To which I replied, in part: “You are right of course…one of the problems/benefits of modern digital cameras is that they make it easy to take thousands of photographs, unlike the old 'analog' cameras that restricted you to shooting a maximum of 36 photos per roll of film.”

And therein lies the problem―or part of it. Modern digital cameras do in deed make it too easy to take hundreds, and even thousands of photographs. Older cameras, with their restrictive 12, 24, or 36 image rolls of film, forced photographers to be a lot more careful and choosy about the photographs they took, and the way they captured them. Because of these limitations, photographers spent a lot more time setting up and composing ‘the shot’, making sure aperture, f-stops, and ISO settings where just right. Even then, until they had a chance to get their rolls of film developed, often weeks later, there were no guarantees that the final results would be what they wanted.

Thankfully, digital cameras have freed us from many of these issues, providing us with the ability to quickly see if our images are good, and if not, to immediately keep shooting until we are satisfied with the results. Digital cameras also make it easy to shoot dozens of photographs of the same object, all in a matter of minutes, or even seconds. Obviously, given this ease of use, it doesn’t take long to accumulate hundreds (or thousands) of photographs, especially during long extended trips.

Stop And Smell The Roses

View from Koskina Castle, Ikaria

But there was something else bothering me about that Facebook comment. Hidden in my friends response is the implied criticism that many modern travellers (including myself), are so busy taking photographs that we don’t stop to truly see and appreciate the things we are trying to capture on film or video. And he is right.

I personally, am well aware of this potential problem, and always try to allow time to just sit and look, to observe and contemplate, and to find space in my travels to be grateful for the opportunities I have had that brought me to a specific location, at that particular period in my life and journey. This is probably the major reason I like to travel for extended periods involving months rather than weeks. It is also the reason I have returned, two, three and even more times to countries and cities I have previously visited.

There are a lot of travellers who are intent on visiting as many countries as they possibly can, simply so they can boast about the number of places they have been to. Getting to know the people and the customs and culture of the countries they visit, is not why these people travel. They are simply collecting stamps in passports, and those ubiquitous, “This is me in…” photographs.

Bastille Monument, Paris

I never have been, nor will I ever be that type of traveller.

Living In ‘The Moment’

In my reply I also wrote: “One of my travel fantasies involves travelling with no camera at all, but I don't know if that is ever going to happen.”

While there have been days during my travels when I have chosen to leave my camera behind at my accommodations, I doubt that I will ever have the confidence in my aging memory banks to not have a camera at all for the duration of a trip. And while I understand the concept of ‘living in the moment’, of trying to focus all my senses on what is going on around me at any particular moment in time, there is also a joy and pleasure in trying to record and capture those moments in a more tangible and permanent form.

We live in an age when literally billions of images have been uploaded to dozens of popular photo sharing sites such as Flickr, Instagram, 500px, Pinterest, and many others. In the time it has taken you to read this far, several million images will have been uploaded to Facebook alone.

The other factor I did not mention is that I have travelled extensively since rekindling my travel bug in 2008. In fact I even surprised myself when I added up the weeks and months I have ventured overseas.

• March 11, 2008 - October 5, 2008 [seven months]
• June 29, 2010 - March 7, 2011 [eight months]
• July 30, 2012 - October 24, 2012 [three months]
• April 28, 2014 - August 20, 2014 [four months]

Water Tower, Sydney

This is a total of around 22 months of travel outside Australia. And this does not include approx six month's house sitting in Melbourne over the past six or seven years, or the two weeks I spent in Sydney in 2009. 

All this travel adds up to almost 30 months away from ‘home’ since March 2008. Thirty months ‘on the road’ presents a heck of a lot of opportunities for taking thousands of photographs―and take them I did.

How many photographs are too many? Can you in fact, take too many photographs during your travels? Does the world really need another image of the Eiffel Tower, or the Empire State Building, or other well known landmark?

I’d love to know what readers think about this issue. Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the Comments section below.

A Year In Paris and New York City

Today I turn 66, (Happy Birthday, Jim).

I am spending the day preparing for a house sitting stint for a home owner heading to Europe for the next six weeks. While she is away, I will house sit and care for her home and much loved feline companion. Two days after the owner returns, I will begin house sitting another home―this time for a period of almost three months. This house sit includes a very active dog that loves to chase balls and run on the nearby beach. Both these homes are within thirty to forty minutes of the apartment I live in.

So why am I house sitting for the next four to five months when I have a perfectly good place of my own to stay in and look after? Because from time to time I like to get out of my comfort zone. Because I want to challenge myself. To remind myself that despite my 66 years, there is still ‘life in the old boy, yet’. And because I want to show my friends, my family, my nephews and nieces, and anyone else who feels stuck in a rut, or afraid of trying something different, that they can challenge themselves at any age to break out of their own particular comfort zones, and try something different.

During the 1970s, I spent five and a half years living and working in London. Each summer I would head into Europe and generally end up in Greece where I have extended family (my parents were Greek). Little did I think, after I returned to Australia in September 1976, that 32 years would pass before I would once again venture away from Australian shores.

Thirty-two years!

Now I am making up for lost travel time. I have travelled to Europe and/or America every two years since 2008, and I am not done yet.

At the end of August, I returned from my latest trip―a four month extended stay in Greece and Paris―infused and excited by the idea of again spending a year living in one of the worlds great capitals. While I was in Paris, the thought occurred to me that I was free to spend the rest of my life pretty much anywhere I chose to live. It might be Adelaide, my home town, or it might be Paris, London, New York City, Berlin, or somewhere else.

Since this idea hit me in Paris, the ‘City of Lights’ was my first choice. Now that I have had time to think about it, I am still excited by the challenge and prospect of living there. I am also exploring the possibility of spending a year in New York City. Having been to New York three times, I would dearly love to spend a whole year there. Even though I have already spent a total of almost five months visiting New York City, I am not done with that most amazing and exciting of cities by a long shot.

Heck. Why not spend a year in Paris and New York City?

Why not, indeed?

Of course, not everyone has the luxury of being retired, and even those of us who are, don’t always have the freedom to pull up stakes and move away from hearth and home for twelve months. Or for greater or lesser periods. However, I firmly believe that we all have many choices available to us throughout our lives, and that we can choose to take the easy way, the comfortable way, the safe way, or we can choose the way ‘less travelled’.

After the idea to spend a year living in Paris or New York City fired my imagination, I wrote in my travel journal:

Life is short.

The clock is ticking.

If not now

―when?

So do it now.

Love The Life You Live

            ―or Change It.

At sixty-six years of age, life does indeed seem short, and the clock is definitely ticking. It may take me another year before I finally sort out all the details for my yearlong Parisian or New York sabbatical, but I am working on it. I’m working on it. Watch this space.

The Cost of Four Months Travel

Parisian river scene

 I recently returned from an almost four month extended vacation spent mostly in Greece, but with a two week side trip to Paris, France. As near is I can calculate it, my total costs for this trip were just under $7,000 (Australian dollars). Incredibly, this figure is pretty much what I would have spent if I had stayed at home in Adelaide, Australia.

By way of explanation: Transport includes all public transport (taxis, buses, trains), excluding ferries and flights; Eats includes meals out and snacks; Groceries includes purchases made at local supermarkets in Greece and Paris; Recreation includes visits to museums, galleries and other landmarks. It also includes shared family meals which I hosted and paid for; Other includes purchases that did not fit neatly into other categories. Finally, Bank Fees on overseas purchases and ATM withdrawals have all been lumped into this category. Here is a breakdown of my trip expenses (figures in Australian dollars):

Accommodations             $1526.40

- AirBnB, Paris         $779.00 (10 nights)

- Palace Hotel           $270.50 (4 nights)

- Delfini Hotel          $476.90 (10 nights)

Tower of St. Jacques, Paris, France

Flights                              $2013.97

- Emirates                 $1619.91

- Air France              $394.06

Ferries                             $225.00

Transport                        $127.37

- Greece                  $46.02

- Paris                     $81.35

Eats                                 $697.92

- Greece                  $390.27

- Paris                     $307.65

Groceries                       $552.39

- Greece                  $481.89

- Paris                     $70.50

Shopping                       $536.50

Recreation                    $762.64

- Greece                  $644.79

- Paris                     $117.85

Other                            $386.95

- Global Rorting      $18.22

Bank Fees                    $154.15         

===========================

TOTAL:                       $6983.29

===========================

Clearly, some of the costs in the above breakdown overlap with other categories. For example, I could have added bank fees (Currency Conversion Fees, etc) to their associated purchases, but I liked the idea of separating these costs out from everything else. Also, my hosting and paying for several family gatherings at restaurants could have gone into the Eats category, but I saw these as separate from meals and snacks I bought just for myself.

‘Global Rorting’ is my not so tongue in cheek name for Global Roaming fees imposed by all telecoms providers on travellers using their mobile phones outside of their home networks. Travel blogs and websites are full of horror stories about people who have returned home to find massive phone bills waiting for them, because they used their phones while travelling.

I got around this potential problem (just $18.22) by using Skype as much as possible, and by using my phone only when I absolutely had to. As soon as I had used my phone to make a call, I would turn off Global Roaming to ensure there was no chance of incurring costs and charges I was not prepared for. If you don’t have Skype installed on your smartphone or tablet device do so at the earliest opportunity. Calls to other Skype users are free―even if those users are on the other side of the planet. And calling people who are not Skype users incurs a fee that is a fraction of what your phone company charges, so do yourself a favor and install it now. Even the app is free.

Statue of Apollo, Versailles, France

An additional word or two about the Accommodations and Groceries expenses may be in order. Firstly, Accommodations. Clearly, since I only paid for a total of 24 nights in hotels, I must have had other sleeping arrangements in place for my remaining three months, and in deed I did.

I am lucky enough to have extensive family connections in Greece where two sisters and their extended families now live. Hence, I was able to share my time between both sisters at no cost in terms of accommodation. However, I did of course contribute financially in other ways while staying with family, either by hosting and paying for the already mentioned family gatherings, or by paying for petrol, groceries (other than my own), and for a new digital television and computer desk for family members (both Shopping expenses), and for other items.

As for Groceries: For most of my time in Greece and Paris, I lived in accommodations that enabled me to cook my own meals, thereby saving me a small fortune by not having to eat out at restaurants and cafés all the time. To clarify, most of my stay in Greece was spent in a self-contained studio apartment owned by family members for which I paid no rent, which obviously kept my accommodation costs to a minimum. A good example of how costs can add up quickly can be seen by comparing the Eats figures. I spent almost as much in Paris ($307.65) over two weeks as I did during 14-15 weeks in Greece ($390.27).

Of course, not all travellers have the luxury of free accommodation available to them when they travel, so I am extremely grateful to my sisters and their families for making my stay not only affordable, but the absolute delight it turned out to be.