The art of travel versus the art of writing

When we plan for travel and anticipate the upcoming trip, we explore travel websites (like this blog), read travel books and enjoy travel photography. In our imagination we start to conjure up all sorts of exotic adventures, waiting for us at our next destination. Once really there, we photograph the Eiffel Tower with our loved ones, friends and family in front of it. All those images form the recollection of the trip, the moments we choose to remember.

In Alain de Botton’s book The Art of Travel, he talks about the anticipation and recollection of travel versus the reality of actually traveling. Because while we remember the highlights, magically gone from our memory are the delayed or even cancelled flight, the overpriced lousy food and the hotel room that didn’t quite look as good in reality as it did on the website. But, as long as we enjoyed the majority of the trip, our brain selects those “good moments” to construct a different reality from the actual experience.

De Botton’s next…