One of the few books I have managed to read and really enjoy in recent months is Sally Jane Smith’s delightful Unpacking for Greece. A personal journey about resilience and adventure. The wonder of travel and the way it always makes us stronger, better people. Personal, funny and insightful, Sally and her experiences are easy to relate to; fears, insecurities and annoyances. A bad travel experience could put you off travel for life, and Sally had a truly dreadful experience in Sri Lanka with a life-threatening bus accident. This journey is about getting back on the travel horse so to speak and getting back out there.
It is not surprising that our experiences of travel are influenced by past experiences, even by past family travel, when we travel we carry all our history, personal and cultural with us, hopefully growing from our encounters with other cultures and traditions. If we are lucky the world becomes richer for us and for all we encounter on our travels, deepening understanding in multiple ways and this book kind of embodies that ethos. It is about discovery, not just of Greece but of a mother who travelled there before. Sally carries a small diary her mother kept on a pilgrimage tour many years earlier. It is about searching for a mother in that journal and finding yourself again on the road. Sometimes getting lost is the best way to find your bearings.
Reading Unpacking for Greece felt like being on the journey with Sally or on a journey with a like-minded friend enjoying all the local colour and challenges. You could taste the ouzo and the olives. Breath in the dust of history. I especially enjoyed the trip to Meteora with its unique geography and history and Sally’s predilection for wandering her own way and exploring on foot particularly appealed, always the best way to get your bearings in a new location and find an adventure.
Adventure is not just for the young and free-spirited, as Sally demonstrates it also waits for those of us in “middlescence” if we take the chance and pursue it. When work and life seem to drag us into a routine that eats at our soul, sometimes the best thing we can do is look for an adventure, take a risk and begin to feel alive again. I really do think we meet our true and best selves on the road.
If you are looking for a wonderful armchair travel read this is a great book to choose. If you are curious about Greece or planning a trip yourself this is a book to inspire your travels. If you are feeling trapped in our modern inherently stressful work-life routine then this might be a book to grant some voyeuristic escape and some inspiration to get out of the rut and plan an adventure yourself. If you want to embark on an adventure but fear is holding you back then again this might be the perfect book for you.
I was in a bit of a reading rut when I picked Unpacking for Greece up and thankfully it was just the thing I needed to break out of the rut. It left me entertained and inspired.
