"As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean."
(C.P. Cavafy, Collected Poems. Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard)
A special person showed us this poem by Cavafy not long time ago. This person believes in freedom, real happiness and different ways of living. We thought that “Ithaka” was perfect for the introduction and the name of this virtual space. We have started a trip, we had a dream and we made it happen. This is not the only one but it is the first one on our long list.
We would love to open a little window to show you and share with you (only if you wish) our wanderings.
-- by Nuria
Here we are at the beginning of our journey that does not really have its destination. When we decided to start this adventure we didn’t have any specific goal in mind. Today we still don’t have one but this is the whole idea of it. Just go with the flow and see, taste, feel, explore and experience new places, cuisines, cultures, people and the way they see life and many other things we don’t even image to happen.
Now with just a backup on our shoulders which we packed in just under an hour (the quickest packing we have ever done, ironically) we are ready to take the flight to Bangkok with a 10 hours stop in Delhi…
Goodbye Europe and welcome South-East Asia.
-- by Robert