Embracing Adventure.

“People say that what we are all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think this is what we’re really seeking. I think what we’re really seeking is an experience of being alive.” - Joseph Campbell.

In January of 2020, in what was probably the most spontaneous decision of my life, I bought a one way ticket to Madrid Barajas Airport. I have always held passionate aspirations of travelling far and wide, and having made the decision to step away from the gripping demands of elite level sport, it felt like the right time to exercise the urge to go vagabonding, solo style. And vagabond solo I did! My friends and family are probably sick to death of hearing about my Spanish escapades (sorry guys), but I guess that just speaks to how f*cking cool the whole experience was. I landed in Madrid on the 30th of January 2020, to embark on a geographically circular road trip, which would bring me through 5 uniquely different and equally majestic Spanish cities, about which I knew next to nothing; Madrid, Toledo, Córdoba, Mérida, Seville and Cáceres. I had no idea how long I was going to spend in each city, I had no idea what I was going to do in any of them either, and I had no idea when I would be returning to Ireland. But I didn’t care. Why? Because I wasn’t going on a holiday. I was going on an adventure.

 I would go on to delight in the most freeingly unconstrained and disorganized 15 days of my life. I had no itinerary, no plan, and no expectations. I just went where my senses took me, an approach which worked genuine wonders. You see, I’ve learned from an amazingly insightful travel writer named Rolf Potts, that true adventure is that in which you are tasked to continually learn, to persist in your navigation, and to willingly thrust yourself into the unknown. Potts taught me, in his bestselling book; ‘Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel’, that if adventure is what you truly seek, travelling huge distances to accomplish great feats is rendered useless by the mere fact of them having been handpicked in advance. What good is it if your plans turn out exactly as you had expected? That’s not adventure – that’s a holiday! There is simply no room for expectations if adventure is the goal. As was so poetically put by Potts’ fellow travel writer Tim Cahill when he said; “We know from the first step that travel is often a matter of confronting our fear of the unfamiliar and the unsettling, of the rooster’s head in the soup, of the raggedy edge of unfocused dread, of that cliff face that draws us willy-nilly to its lip and forces us to peer into the void.” Unfortunately I wasn’t lucky enough to stumble across rooster head soup on my travels, but I did not hesitate to indulge in whatever authentically Spanish food I could get my hands on. This delicious “Codorniz”, or, Quail, for example, that was recommended to me repeatedly by the sun-kissed friendly faces of glorious Seville, was particularly tasty.

Needless to say, the Quail was washed down with a refreshingly crisp glass of Cruzcampo. I was in Seville after all – The home of Cruzcampo

What would you consider real adventure: paying for a guided expedition up a well known, heavily trafficked mountain with plentiful snacks and refreshments to enjoy ad libitum, or navigating your way to a small Amazonian village with intentions of learning a traditional craft, with just a limited grasp of the Spanish language? Which experience will require more ingenuity and perseverance: paying extortionate prices to lounge for 7 days on a luxurious Royal Caribbean Cruise, or spending much less to travel for much longer via second hand motorcycle around the glorious South East Asian countries of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand? True adventure consists of pleasant surprises and unfortunate mishaps, breathtaking scenery and thunderstorm induced taking for cover. “Everything that occurs out of necessity, everything expected, repeated day in and day out is mute,” wrote Czech novelist Milan Kundera, “Only chance can speak to us.” Of course, what I consider to be adventurous may not be interpreted as such by you, and this is exactly the point. Adventure finds everyone differently. The secret, according to Mr. Potts, is to just let it do so;

“Adventure is still considered a purely physical act… but real adventure is not something that can be itemized in glosssy brochures or sports magazines. In fact, real adventure is sometimes just going out and allowing things to happen in a strange an amazing new environment – not so much a physical challenge as a psychic one …The secret of adventure, then, is not to carefully seek it out but to travel in such a way that it finds you… adventure is a decision after the fact – a way of deciphering an event or an experience that you can’t quite explain … What better way to discover the unknown than to follow your instincts instead of your plans.”

On the first couple of days in Spain, I was making a conscious effort to leave whatever technological contraptions I had brought with me in my backpack. After day two however, this was no longer a conscious choice, but had instead become an unconscious given. The natural beauty of my surroundings was enough to make me forget about my stupid Samsung S10 almost entirely. I say almost, because I did remember to take photographs, but only after I had made sure to actually see what I was looking at – a lesson I’ve learned from maestro Anthony De Mello, which seems to have traversed seamlessly to my hippocampus for long term storage; “When you have enjoyed something intensely, you need very little.” De Mello said, “It’s like people who are busy planning their vacation; they spend months planning it, and they get to the spot, and they’re all anxious about their reservations for flying back. But they’re taking pictures alright, and later they’ll show you pictures in an album, of places they never saw but only photographed. That’s a symbol of modern life.” Thank God I had read De Mello’s book ‘Awareness’ before my adventure, because the thoughts of photographing The Roman Theatre of Mérida, or Seville’s Parque de María Luisa, without having first mindfully consumed their aesthetic majesty, makes me quiver to my core.

The Roman Theatre of Mérida, Mérida.

Parque de María Luisa, Seville.

Beauty and Grace are performed whether or not we sense them. The least we can do is try to be there.” - Annie Dillard.

Wouldn’t that have been a monumental disgrace? And for what? So my Instagram followers would know I was there? Well, news flash people, and this is something which I have known for a long time but wasn’t aware of until quite recently (There is a big difference between knowing and being aware): Your Instagram followers really don’t care where you are, or where you have been, whether that be up in the nosebleeds of the Santiago Bernabeau enjoying El Derbi Madrileño, or watching the sun set over The Puente de San Martín in Toledo. We rob ourselves of precious moments by talking to much, thinking too much, and texting too much. By failing to just be. It really isn’t much to ask of yourself to just be, is it? In fact, you are in effect asking yourself to do less, in return for an infinitely more enriching experience. “It is not daily increase but daily decrease,” went the wise words of Bruce Lee, “The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity.”

Soaking up the atmosphere at the Santiago Bernabeau in Madrid.

The Puente de San Martín, Toledo, Spain.

Challenge yourself to do things you wouldn’t usually contemplate, whether this means stopping all activity to experience a moment more fully, going off the beaten track to check out a quaint rural village, or taking up an invitation to go for a few beers with your hostel roomies. I understand that it can be difficult to muster up the courage to take such a plunge. I’ve been there. My adolescent years were spent very carefully making sure that I didn’t do anything which could potentially provoke a “who does he think he is?” kind of response. He who dared stray from the status quo left himself open to a slagging of self-esteem shattering proportions. I have since learned that it is not necessarily the unknown that scares us, but abandoning the known. “Many a false step was made by standing still” – the prophecy of one surprisingly wise fortune cookie. Don’t stand still in the familiar, leap courageously towards uncommon ground, and bask in that satisfying feeling of hard earned joy. 

It is so often circumstance that makes an adventure, not a location or an activity. It was pure chance that the Madrid derby was being played just up the road from my hostel on the day after my arrival. And it was pure chance that I even went! I had no intentions of going, but my siblings had kindly clubbed together to get me a ticket to this world famous fixture, surprising me with an email the day before. All I did was hop on a plane to Madrid with no expectations or preconceived illusions about what I might or might not experience, and my actual experience was, I believe, so much better as a consequence. I truly believe that when it comes to travel, and life for that matter, that dropping all expectations is tantamount in terms of enhancing the potential of personal experience. Harder said than done of course. Dropping expectations may even be the hardest thing you’ll ever do. Imagine though, tragedy aside, what it would be like to never feel disappointed on your travels again. No expectations? No disappointment. Cultivating a mindset like this has the added advantage of exacerbating the joy experienced in encountering pleasant moments.“Good people keep walking whatever happens.” Proclaimed Buddha, “They do not speak vain words and are the same in good fortune and bad.”

“Rise free from care before the dawn and seek adventures, Let the moon find thee by other lakes, and the night overtake thee everywhere at home. There are no larger fields than these, no worthier games than may here be played.” 

- Henry David Thoreau

Thank you for taking the time to read.

Leigh.