"Today I met a twenty-five-year-old American boy in the museum who was typical of his kind. To them, travel is more a going away from than a going toward, and they seem empty and unhappy and bewildered and pathetically anxious for companionship, yet are afraid to commit themselves to any ideal or cause or person. I find something both terrifying and touching in young people without an aim, however foolish or wrong they may be. This young man was pleasant and intelligent but wasting his time and resentfully conscious of the fact. He did not want to return home, yet, after two years, he is weary of travel, probably because he always holds himself aloof from the people-not through hostility or superiority but through a strange unawareness of his own identity."
Dervla Murphy, an Irishwoman who biked from Ireland to Delhi in 1963. This encounter took place in Kabul.
From Clifford Graves, "The Perils of Dervla Murphy", 1969.
And for those who may be interested, Murphy still travels, and still writes.
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3 comments:
Wow, makes me want to get on a bike and travel. It is the best way to learn about others and yourself. :)
Dervla Murphy has never been a nurse! She is a writer and she has written dozens of travel books and been all over the world since that trip to Delhi. Her most recent is only about a year ago to Cuba, called 'The island who dared'.
(re-reading her bio)
Hmm, you're right! Thank you, Zaza! I'm correcting this!
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