Even hundreds of years later, we're still fascinated by travel. Maybe a bit too much. Trains are often late, and they explain it with "delays in operational procedures". What kind of excuse is that? I'm late because I'm late? That's like saying: "I gained weight because I got fatter."
Traffic reports talk about losing time. A 30-minute time loss. That's a strange way to put it. Can you really lose time? Isn't time always moving at the same speed? These philosophical questions go through my head while I'm stuck in traffic, waiting for all the cars to start moving again.
At the airport, holiday travelers push their way through the crowds. The summer holiday season is long because each German state has its own rules. When Bavaria has summer holidays, other places are almost starting their autumn break. It's like a patchwork of holiday schedules across the whole country.
And then a small coffee at Frankfurt Airport costs € 7.39. Seven euros and thirty-nine cents. For a paper cup with brown hot water. Crazy, right? But maybe that's the price we pay for our restlessness. The price for trying to satisfy our longing to be somewhere else.
You might think summer would be the best time for me as a photographer to travel. Finally lots of light and warm enough for my nude models. But that's not true.
I have to wait with my travels until the tourists leave the beaches again. During the main season, everything is so crowded that I can't properly take photos outside. Kind of annoying.
But I've gotten used to it. It's part of the game, part of the endless cycle of traveling.
Location envy works in mysterious ways: your ordinary is someone else's extraordinary, and vice versa.
When the last tourist has recovered from their sunburn at home, that's my signal: Time for new adventures. Time to join the craziness of traveling. Always hoping that things are better somewhere else than here. But maybe that's just an illusion. Maybe the special thing we're looking for isn't in any specific place.
Maybe it's inside us, in the way we see the world. And maybe, just maybe, we'll find it one day. Somewhere between here and there, between leaving and arriving.