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Saturday, March 3, 2012

Travel Sections

We are driving home from Plymouth, New Hampshire today, back to our home in Upstate New York. We decided to take our time coming home, and just stopping whenever we choose. It's a 4 hour drive, but because my sister is watching our kids tonight, we don't have to rush home.

We stop in Keene, New Hampshire on the way home, hoping to see a charming little village. It is cute, and we stop at the cutest shopping mall. Instead of a big concrete building with the normal stores, this mall looks like it was a factory, that they turned into a mall. And inside, are local stores, that sell local items. It's a large brick building, and inside walking around, everything is brick and old wood. It's just so charming.

We spent most of our time there, at a bookstore called The Toadstool Bookshop. I love bookstores that our independently owned. They offer charm, but also, a different selection of books, and their children's sections are filled with books I've never even seen before. I love it!

I find that whenever I walk into a book store, I'm always running to the Travel Section. Since my year living in Europe, I am intrigued with visiting places, even if it's just looking at pictures in travel books. I recently read a book about an expat family, who moves to France for four years, and I loved reading how another family experienced life in another culture. I'm currently reading another travel book: a book with many stories about traveling the world. Someday, I hope to write about my experiences, and I love reading about what others experienced.

I spent a lot of time looking at travel books, travel memoirs, and travel picture books. I looked through a coffee book of Paris, a travel book on Italy, and a memoir of a woman who moved to Paris for one year (I bought that one). I bought a travel magazine. If my husband didn't nudge me to another aisle, and then out the store, I would had been there for hours. I am consumed and obssessed with wanting to travel to exotic places, and back to Europe. I have been back in the United States for seven months, yet I still really miss my European life. Looking at pictures, reading about others' stories, makes me feel connected. Sometimes, I don't think anybody really understands the adjustments and difficulties I've been having. But when I visit a book store, I find myself looking at these books, and I know these authors and photographers fell in love with places too; the same places I did. Their stories and pictures need to be written and seen, and for a couple of minutes in the Travel Section, I can relate to all of the photographers and authors that visited these historical and intimate places. Because I share their passion too. I share their love of the experience of traveling, but most importantly, what I learned about life and myself when visiting these faraway lands. Sometimes I feel like the travel section knows what I am going through; missing the places I loved. I find my comfort and solace, and walk out the book store to explore another town: Keene, New Hampshire.

2 comments:

  1. I think I need to visit Keene, especially the bookstore. Travel certainly does broaden one's horizon. Whenever we return from a trip abroad my husband longs for the simplicity of life we viewed.

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  2. Your travels sound delightful. I would love to hear about a special time. I lived in another country for 2 years. The travel books do allow you to reconnect.

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