You do not travel if you are afraid of the unknown, you travel for the unknown, that reveals you with yourself.
Interpretation
Traveling represents a journey into the unknown that fosters self-discovery and personal growth.
In this quote, Ella Maillart emphasizes that fear of the unknown can hinder one's ability to travel. However, the essence of travel lies in venturing into uncharted territories, which ultimately leads to self-revelation and a deeper understanding of oneself. Traveling challenges us to confront uncertainties, and through these experiences, we discover not just the world around us, but also important truths about our own character.
In practice
In a travel blog post discussing why people embark on adventures.
It's a common mistake for vacationing Americans to assume that everyone around them is French and therefore speaks no English whatsoever. [...] An experienced traveler could have told by looking at my shoes that I wasn't French. And even if I were French, it's not as if English is some mysterious tribal dialect spoken only by anthropologists and a small population of cannibals.
They hadn't much faith in travel, nor a great belief in a change of scene as a panacea for spiritual ills; they were simply glad to be going.
Each time I go to a place I have not seen before I hope it will be as different as possible from the places I already know. I assume it is natural for a traveler to seek diversity, and that it is the human element that makes him most aware of difference. If people and their manner of living were alike everywhere, there would not be much point in moving from one place to another.
I would like to spend the whole of my life traveling, if I could anywhere borrow another life to spend at home.
By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.
As a traveler, I've often found that the more a culture differs from my own, the more I am struck by its essential humanity.
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