Travel Scrabble

It’s 12th April 2020, and the Coronavirus is approaching its crescendo in my corner of the world. The only places more eerily silent than my apartment are the bars, clubs and restaurants of Sydney that surround it. I sit alone, my 3 roommates having lost jobs and returned home in the last fortnight. Crucially, the last to leave took his X-Box with him. And so I’m here. Writing this.

I don’t intend for this blog to be ‘useful’ in the traditional sense. I won’t explain how to ‘Do Vietnam on a Shoestring’ nor am I the savior to the hoards wondering what ‘The Top 13 Ravioli Restaurants in Rome’ are. In addition, my apologies to those hoping that it will be garnered by the gimmicks, gizmos and gadgets usually at home on a travel blog. Aerial GoPro videos make me dizzy while I find counters of ‘Destinations Visited’ or ‘Countries Conquered’ anodyne at best and decidedly soporific at worst. In any case, each is already done in more varied and creative ways than I could ever hope to do them. To quote Oscar Wilde – and I will likely lean on the wisdom of others quite regularly – ‘Always be yourself, everyone else is taken’.

If my writing has any inspiration it’s the late A.A. Gill, whose redoubtable travel writing had a home in a plurality of publications. Gill said that it was his intention to ‘interview places’ and while I can’t claim to share his intellect, wit or erudition, I do share his intention.

All I can promise is to tell you what those places had to say.