emabromleyI had no idea starting a blog would be such a challenge!
I launched my website with such high ideals, imaging myself posting a blog every few days, regaling you with the best stories and insights from my adventures.
But here I am, 46 days into my trip and all l have managed to share with you so far, is a post about which piece of luggage I chose to bring with me. A post I admittedly wrote before I left.
Which is why, l feel the need to start with an apology. Especially to my friends and family who don’t follow me on Instagram (and there are quite a few of you), because, I discovered, you refuse to use it. You were the reason I set up this website, so that you could have regular updates during my trip. Which is why I feel so bad that I have let you down. l am truly sorry.
I tried writing my first post so many times, but then I would get scared. Of what? I am not sure. But it reminds me of the feeling I often get when starting the first page of a new sketchbook. A sense that the first page is important, because it’s the one that the rest of my sketchbook will be judged on. The pressure of the first pages seems to often immobilise me because I don’t want to mess it up. So, instead of getting it wrong, l don’t start at all.
And then the longer I leave it, with each day of my trip ticking by, and no posts written yet, the harder it seems to start.
A useful technique to overcome this stalemate, given to me by Sarah Lightman (graphic artist) last year, is to intentionally make a mess on the first page. Making an intentional mess seems to bypass the anxieties and after that, everything looks great by comparison.
So, here I go… this is my messy first page!
Hopefully, it will enable me it overcome whatever fear has been holding me back and I can begin to share some highlights from my trip so far.
If you would prefer a day by day account of my travels, I would highly recommend checking my Instagram page @exquisitethresholds. (You can find the link to it on my homepage). For some reason I didn’t have the same writers block on there. Maybe it’s because the content is mostly photographs (with additional comments), and I feel much more confident in that arena.
The destinations of the European leg of my trip (to date and in order ) starting from London (1st October 2022):
Belgium: Brussels and Bruges.
Denmark: Copenhagen and Aarhus.
Germany: Hamburg, Berlin and briefly Munich.
Italy (since 12th October): Venice, Florence, Naples, Rome and Siena.
Puglia in Southern Italy (30th October to 5th November): Bari, Lecce and Gallipoli.
Sicily (6th to 18th November): Taormina, Modica, Agrigento, Favara and Palermo.
The initial two weeks were more of a whistle-stop tour through Northern Europe because I really wanted to visit Copenhagen ahead of meeting my sister in Naples on my birthday (19th October). My travels through the rest of Italy have been more leisurely, well relatively speaking.
It’s been great fun, and I am only on the initial leg through Europe, with India, Asia, Bali, Japan and hopefully New Zealand still to come.
I’ve already had my fair share of highs and lows, which was always to be expected. I am doing my best at embracing everything which comes , with admittedly varying degrees of success. Especially when it comes to the lows. But in the end, after the discomfort has faded, the lows do make for the most interesting stories! Ones which l hope to share with you here in due course. Hopefully without you needing to wait for another 46 days to hear from me!
