With brand new eyes.

"How was your trip to Prague?" I have often been asked this questions these days. This question is quite normal. When someone returns from a holiday you usually ask this question to know how it went, unless you're not interested, but that's another story.
When someone asks me how it was, I answer truthfully saying that it was 'super fun' and 'fantastic' and that I'm sorry I could not have stayed a little bit longer. Everything there was so beautiful and so nice, and above all it was very different and therefore very interesting.





In Prague, there were so many new impressions and I enjoyed the buildings, built in all these different styles, the history, the nature, the food, the people and I could not get enough of walking and seeing, eating and feeling.








But not everyone felt the same way. I met different people during my trip. I for example met a group of people from Serbia. One of the girls told me that she did not think Prague was that interesting, in fact it was really similar to where she came from, nothing new to see here.

I met a French girl who currently lives in Paris. She mentioned how she was missing her own city and how she was looking forward to go back and hug the grass. This was something that back then I could not understand.
I met a boy who thought the city of Prague had nothing to offer him compared to his insanely large, international city that never sleeps: New York, concrete jungle were dreams are made off. He spent most of his time in Prague in the hostel and told us he preferred reading a book about something than actually going out to explore it. We sometimes wondered what had brought him to Prague in the first place.



I fell in love with Prague and enjoyed everything to the fullest, took everything in and went out on the street from early in the morning until at least 10 o'clock at night. Getting 4 hours of sleep at night was enough because it felt like there was no time to lose. Time would not stand still, so I could not afford to.
I saw a lot in five days, which was also my goal in the first place, but the time came to leave again, as it always does. I was very sorry,  for some reason the grass seemed greener here and the colors seemed brighter but it was time to return to the Netherlands, to get on the plane to my normal, daily life.


From the moment I got off the plane I realized that it felt strange to be back in a place where everything was "so normal". Something happened to me. I was no longer looking around me to discover and to see every thing, as I had done in Prague. Why would I?  I knew what was happening. I know how every thing works in the Netherlands. I do not have to look around to find my way. I can find my way blindly with two hands coughed behind my back. It's simple like that. 
I do not need to look outside the window of the train, I can simply relax. I know what the landscape looks like. I know that almost all the houses have this dull brown color and that day the sky was not a beautiful bright blue as it had been in Prague. The sky was grey.

Everything was known to me and therefore no longer interesting. The grass seemed less green and then it dawned to me: I realized that I was taking the things in "my own country" for granted. 


I realized that what I was experiencing was a little similar to what often happens in a relationship and often also means the end of it. At the beginning every thing is new and we have all these things to discover about each other and everything feels very exciting, fun and interesting. After a while the excitement usually wears off a little bit, we start paying less attention to each other and there are less questions to be asked because there's a lot that we  already know. This person we're in a relationship with is no longer a fun and exciting mysterious stranger. Everything that was once so magical and that made us fall in love suddenly feels very normal. Sometimes we might even get a little bored

I realized that traveling to a new place is similar to looking at the world through the eyes of a child.  When we arrive at a place we do not know yet or have never seen, we tend to want to explore everything in every possible way, for example by seeing it, by feeling it and by tasting it. There are all these impulses and new impressions. We're constantly surprised and amazed. But when we return to our "normal environment" we kind of tend to take the "very normal" things that happen around us for granted.

And I thought about how nice it would be if we did not take these "ordinary things" that we know and that we so often see in our lives for granted. 
How nice it would be if we would still react enthusiastically and would still appreciate these "normal" things and fely grateful.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could all keep continuing exploring "the known". Wouldn't it be nice if we took less things for granted and wouldn't just rush through life disregarding what passes us by.










Wouldn't it be nice if we would look through the windows of the train, that we ourselves have become and that rushes through life, more often and would stand still to reflect on what it is that we're seeing outside?

It would be nice if we could discover and appreciate new things and new places but would also feel this excitement, this urge to run or drive or fly home and would look forward to hugging our own grass. It would be nice if we spent less time admiring our neighbors grass and would take more time to admire our own. It would be nice if we took more time to look at the daily things in life in different ways and to discover them all over again, with these brand new eyes.
I think that would be nice.