If you landed on Tarantula: Authors and Art for the very first time or are a new subscriber, the Dog Chronicle is a new editorial piece that looks at the world through the POV of a puppy and hints the theme of the month. What kind of a puppy are we talking about? A very curious chocolate toy or miniature poodle; he still isn’t sure of his real size. If a friend forwarded you this article about our hero, welcome; if you like it, share it or think of subscribing.
All the sings are there: sun, long days, sweat, my muscles relaxing. It is time to pack the bags, buy a ticket and fly the skies. Travel is on my mind. But first I have to take care of Wolfie.
Living with a dog in the city I definitely entered a repetitive routine: waking up with the sunrise for an early walk, followed by breakfast, another walk, sleeping when the sun sets. The dog trots usually freely down the street; with his nose sniffing the ground he hardly looks up. From above, it all looks rather monotonous, but at times, the dog pulls back led by a strong smell, a smell that hides stories of other dogs and their own experiences.
While the dog enjoys his daily adventures, I can’t help myself but be bored. I start remembering the blue waters of the Adriatic, the children selling dried urchins and sea stars on the cobbled streets of Rovinj, which they pulled out of the water earlier in the day; meeting on one of my vacations Vesna Vulovic, the Yugoslav stewardess who holds the Guinness book of records for surviving the highest fall when the plane broke in mid air; and watching seasonal artists painting rustic window shutters onto their canvases for carefree tourists to take home as souvenirs.
This first summer with no big worry of corona evokes a a sense of nostalgia in hope for a great new adventure. But as I am preparing to escape the doldrums of my daily grind the barks remind me that this summer everything became a bit more complicated … again. It is not so easy to just pack my bags and go, not with a dog, not when most of my friends avoid my sight when I get the courage to ask them to doggy sit. Taking the dog on the trip with me? That means good bye to museums and galleries, late mornings, and really with the chaos happening on the airports around the world right now, it would just be cruel for both him and I.
So as I grabbed my pen to write about travel for this issue of Tarantula: Authors And Art, I surprised myself by suddenly traveling in time to the first day of a temp job I once held instead of a sunny vacation. As I stepped into the building and went down the hallway to find my new office, I first entered a huge dark hall with limited light where I was welcomed by a giant 14 foot long squid behind the window display. I am sure that I came to work 5 minutes late that day.
The office was in the back of the Museum of Natural History in New York City hidden from the crowds that visited each day. Lunch breaks included walks to the planetarium or standing in awe of the dinosaur fossils that stretched meters above my head. The dusty dark room filled with all women employees was a special kind of travel agency that organized trips in the ranks of the Indiana Jones Chronicles with a price tag out of the reach for most citizens. My one day job turned into a few months, just enough to start my own escapades by answering the phone:
VOICE OF A TRAVELER
“Hello, I am calling …”
(somewhere from the depths of Mesopotamia)
“our bus is stuck in torrential rain.”
They always called when disaster struck. I would speak to them calmly from the desk of the windowless room while imagining them stuck in the same mud which once built the cradle of civilization. 12, 000 years ago it was exactly because of the regular flooding that people populated the land between the two rivers. The ground was fertile making it a prime spot for the Neolithic Revolution aka the Agricultural Revolution that changed human lives forever. But now the rain was just an inconvenience for someone’s vacation.
I am sure I would’ve hated to be in their shoes, but from my desk it all sounded so romantic. Just like in the movies, I imagined them climbing up caves, escaping danger and snakes, getting rescued just as the water raised up to their chins. Even now while I am writing about this, with my dog sleeping under my desk, my heart races just a little bit. I am transported.
Last summer, as corona was still rampant, not being able to travel to visit her parents across the ocean as she usually does, Tarantula: Authors And Art’s artist of July, Nina Buesing needed to escape after New York City lockdowns and months long home schooling. So together with her family she decided to hit the road and travel close to home across the USA.
Road trips are always depicted as some kind of a rite of passage, a licence to do whatever one wants. And looking at Nina’s photos from the trip, it definitely feels as if her family succeeded in reaching a much needed freedom. In talking to the artist, she reminded me that trips are not just an adventure but a great source of education as well. Following her children’s interests as well as hers and those of her husband, they visited different cities and museums, be it for art or science or culture and food. And along the way, they left room for fun and surprises. It’s not a bad thing to sometimes make a turn at an unplanned exit and leap into the unknown.
Maybe, today, I can’t just pack my bags and go on a trip at any given moment, but memories, stories and photos like the ones Nina shares with us can definitely transform me to a different place. I am not going to lie and hide that tears have already been shed this year because of the dog and my own expectations, but I am learning to be more spontaneous and open. Travel doesn’t always have to be miles away.
Just last weekend, we took the dog on a trip just an hour and a half away from our city. Watching him interact with water and swim for the fist time brought a lot of smiles, watching him overcome his fear quickly and jump on the SUP board and loving it awakened the same sensation as the traveling bug. We are on and ready to fly!
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but having new eyes. ~ Marcel Proust
Summer and art that documents it give us hope. So, wherever you find yourselves this month, at home, in a far away country or traveling in your mind, try to do something new: talk to a stranger on the street, try a new food, pick up a new skill, look at some art, create, or just sit comfortably in your sofa and read a good book. Whatever let’s your mind wonder, alters your mood, gets your daydreaming welcome it. It’s July and it’s time to have some fun.
SUMMER READING
Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir Of A Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad
A book that was recommended to me by our artist of the month Nina Buesing. Not for the faint of heart because the author describes her journey with cancer, but she also gets to hit the road with her loving dog Oscar. The memoir takes you on a ride on how to reclaim ones life again.
A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East by Tiziano Terzani
Definitely one of my favorite travel books that I also gifted many times. When the author was told by a Hong Kong fortune teller not to travel by plane for a year because he will die, at first he took it as nonsense. However, he decided to take her advice and instead traveled through Asia by bus, train, donkey, etc. It turned out to be the best adventure of his life.
Show And Tell: The Aspirational Travel Photograph by Nithya Subramanian
In her newsletter, the author, gives us a different perspective about travel and photos that we take while vacationing. A lovely read!
Love this post. (and am especially inspired by the Proust quote you included!)