What if the Hokey Pokey IS what it's all About???

Adding to the "art of wandering;" notes from Prague

Firstly, many thanks to those of you who responded to my ideas about "the art of wandering!"

In particular, I'd like to mention a point my dear friend Dan Prince (a world-wanderer - Spain, Vietnam and Taiwan most recently!) brought up; I quote directly, "Remember that applying a little scientific observation to wandering makes you productive. There's a distinction between a wanderer and an explorer. A wanderer discovers. An explorer discovers and COMMUNICATES her discovery to others."

#8) I hereby dub this idea number eight. Without active interpretation of one's surroundings, wandering can truly be aimless. However, if your aim is to wander actively, one can in effect have no destination yet fulfil a purpose. The physical act of wandering is not so important as the mindset, and as Dan so wonderfully points out, an ardent mind can fill a potentially mediocre wander with meaning.

#9) In Prague (as well as Amsterdam), I found that a wandering partner can add greatly to the experience. On a practical level, wandering partners keep us from doing silly things like boarding the wrong train or stepping in a pile of dog doo-doo (which abounds in pristine Prague! those Czechky's love their canines!) (however, a wandering partner can also give a false sense of security - I'm reminded of how 3 of us gals got onto a train going in the wrong direction in Brussels). As a woman travelling alone, a wandering partner can serve as a bodyguard, pretend fiance, or just another number to add to the "safety in numbers" equation.

Yet what a wandering partner is best for, in my mind, is (potentially) broadening one's experience. After all, if some of the (many) aims of wandering are to discover new things, delight in the ordinary and extraordinary beauty that surrounds us everyday, and to expand one's perspective, and if a wandering partner by definition will see the experience from a different perspective, having a wandering partner can only multiply the potential benefits of wandering (now, if only i had a "writing partner" to clean up that sentence...).

Of course, there are downsides to this - at times, the thoughts of others can cloud our own so that an observation we might have made while alone never materializes; also, whenever you add a new wandering partner, logistical questions inevitably come into the equation, which might distract from the often meditative quality of wandering.

Overall, I like a healthy dose of each, but erring on the side of a partner. I find that situations which might annoy, frustrate or scare me alone often become funny or superfluous when in the company of a new friend. For example, I traipsed around Prague with my new friend Hokun (he's actually from Redmond, but he lives with his girlfriend in Finland). We decided that since we were from the northwest, we'd take the most northwest tram to the last stop and see what we could see (i'll admit, i also did some research and learned that this area had some cool imestone formations).

When we got off the train, the air was cool, the clouds were getting darker, and we were facing a dark, limestone structure straight from "the lord of the rings" (in one of the fighting scenes; i'm not exactly a guru so that's all i remember). The area was definitely used for human recreation because we could see some trails, but the overall feel was that we were in some sort of Frankenstein/transylvania land and that bats were about to fly out of the trees and attack our faces!

I have no doubt if I was alone I would have just gotten the tram back, but with Hokun by my side the landscape became the subject of some witty banter; we wondered what creatures could be waiting for us on the other side of the cliff and made various squeaking noises to mimic how we thought they'd sound. With a new friend by my side, the landscape became less scary, and by the time we got up close to the crags we could appreciate the dark beauty of it.

Also, a wandering partner can allow for tangents, which can sometimes provide a nice break from the attention that active wandering requires. Later on that evening, Hokun, a woman named Maggie, Hokun's friend Scott and I got into a long discussion about God, the intelligent design theory and other relevant "big" questions.

#10) I have to say that, when in another culture, having a local wandering buddy (perhaps this is just point "9 b" but I really like having 10 points) can give a whole different kind of perspective. Yesterday, for my last afternoon, Eva (the girl I met on the bus ride over) met me in the city and took me a local Czech restaurant. My stomach is still recovering from the heavy chicken/ham, potato and bread dumplings, and gravy (people in this part of the world do NOT eat lightly!), but it was totally worth it to enjoy the company of someone who used to live in an apartment down the street while she was in university.

I was surprised how close the pub was to the main square (it was just outside), yet you wouldn't know from the inside; everyone else was Czech, and the pub offered no English menu (usually a good sign!).

I was so grateful to Eva; without getting much back in return, she gave me countless insights into Czech culture, showed me some amazing buildings (we went up the "TV tower," the tallest building in Prague, which is a big gray structure with these enormous bronze sculptures of babies crawling up and down it - SO hysterical!), and was just a good person to chat with, culture aside! | posted by Cheryl, 11/23/2005 04:38:00 AM