On•the•Move Musings: 2/7/20

Welcome to On•the•Move Musings: a weekly-update-series where I reflect on my time exploring the globe; a place to record all the little details from travel that, despite being so special, my pigeon brain could likely forget; a space to show gratitude for where life’s daydreams have taken me; a few moments to stop and write during the chaos of long term travel. I’ll be posting every Friday to share some good vibes and wanderlust before we head into the weekend!

Hello from the U.S.A.

I’m back stateside and have spent the last day reflecting on all the memories I made during my month in the U.K. and Europe. So many things happened I could not have made up if I tried! haha. I’m so happy I put myself out of my comfort zone and will definitely be cherishing these memories forever… solo travel is kind of addicting. I’m ready to do it again, and I will be soon!

That being said, it does not always go smoothly. It’s exhausting way more than it’s glamorous, despite what every traveler’s Instagram will tell you. There’s no one to help when you don’t know what to do or when something doesn’t go as planned. When times get frustrating or overwhelming, you only have yourself to rely on. This ultimately results in gaining skills and confidence you didn’t know you had, but in the moment it’s not fun. I have a lot of memories like that that I don’t want to forget either.

I want to remember the good and the bad.

 

 

Musings

I went on an incredible tour of Belfast with a guide who has lived there his whole life and grew up during The Troubles. I mentioned in a previous blog a really good book about that conflict I just finished reading, so I was very excited to learn more from someone who experienced it all firsthand while the details were so fresh in my mind. My guide David and I spoke one-on-one for 2 hours while he drove me around to a lot of important places with Troubles history.

One of those places was the Peace Wall, which used to be the #1 tourist site in the city until recently when the Titanic Museum opened (also an incredible learning experience). The Peace Wall is the tallest wall in Europe–taller than the Berlin Wall was and taller than the wall between Israel and Palestine. I was pretty shocked to hear that. I got my photo taken right at the spot that started it all (see photo below)–wherein 1969 the civil rights movement caused the religious-centered unrest in the city to boil over and Protestants rushed into the Catholic neighborhood across the street and burned it down. The British government quickly stepped in, started the wall within two weeks of the attack, and it’s still standing today. The gates allowing you to get through the wall and quickly go from the Protestant neighborhood to the Catholic neighborhood and vice versa still close every night. To get 2 blocks away, it becomes a 5-mile trip. My guide grew up in the Protestant neighborhood but now runs these tours, so he goes into the Catholic neighborhood every day as part of his job. I asked when the first time he went to the other side of the wall was. He said 2017, and I was shocked again. It’s literally a few blocks away from where he’s been living for 50 years.

 

 

David thinks it will take another 40-50 years for the wall to completely come down, once all the people living during The Troubles aren’t around anymore. He is very optimistic about the youth turning things around, though. His daughter is dating a Catholic, and he comes over to their house all the time. That would have been unheard of in his generation, but David supports it wholeheartedly. He told me how the young kids go to mixed religious schools these days and have friendships outside of their own religion. He has hope that through them The Troubles and its aftermath will remain a thing of the past and strong enough bridges will be built to keep it that way. Because for those who lived through it, it’s still real and raw. Even though my guide goes into the Catholic neighborhood every day for work and has Catholic coworkers/friends, he said he still can’t go out for drinks with them in their neighborhood (even now in 2020). They have to go into the city center which is neutral territory.

I felt so grateful to get to spend so much time learning about The Troubles from David and hear his opinions about it all–seriously SO fascinating. It was great to hear how he has so much faith in the youth making the future brighter than the past.

Currently Watching

Of course I watched Miss Americana, the new Taylor Swift documentary on Netflix, as soon as I got the chance haha. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I found it extremely inspirational and powerful.

I thought her comments about standards of beauty and body weight were very moving and great messages that I’m sure millions of women needed to hear: “Because if you’re thin enough, then you don’t have that ass that everybody wants, but if you have enough weight on you to have an ass, then your stomach isn’t flat enough. It’s all just f***ing impossible.” Personally, seeing her in the public eye as a woman who is now bigger than a size 0 has been very comforting to me and has helped me accept myself as I am.

I also loved seeing her transition from staying quiet (“A nice girl smiles and waves and says thank you. A nice girl doesn’t make people feel uncomfortable with her views.”) to deciding to use her voice, in this instance in regards to politics. As a woman I totally related to this struggle. Because when you say something, you open yourself up to judgment and criticism and trolls. Even doing these weekly updates or continuing my blog was something I contemplated for a long time and almost decided not to do. In the end, I figured I’m lucky to live in a country that lets me voice my opinions when so many women around the world are not in that same situation, so here we are.

After opening up about her political views, she shared a new song that I feel really mirrored David’s sentiments on The Troubles tour about how the youth is our best hope for moving forward into the future in a positive way. Here are some of the lyrics so you can see if you agree with me. You can find the link to the full song here.

[Verse 1]
It keeps me awake
The look on your face
The moment you heard the news
You’re screaming inside
And frozen in time
You did all that you could do
The game was rigged, the ref got tricked
The wrong ones think they’re right
You were outnumbered this time
[Chorus]
But only the young
Only the young
Only the young
Only the young can run
Can run, so run
And run, and run

What’s Next

Wow, thanks for sticking with me through such a long update. I’m going to a concert in Chicago with my parents and best friend tonight which I’ve been looking forward to for months! I’ll only be in Indiana for a few days before I’m off again. I head to California next week to catch up with old-coworkers-turned-friends in SoCal and family in San Francisco 🙂

Words

“Are you guys still here?”

–Wayne Kowalkowski