Travel Writing Competition 2014 Entries Page1

It’s surprising how much colder the Arctic air feels when you’re completely naked. Although of course it could be argued that doing pretty much anything in the Arctic is likely to be colder than doing it anywhere else.

My story starts in Tehran 1997.I and my family decided to move to the America forever. It took us many years of waiting to get our petition to immigrate and to enter United States legally. Finally the time came in July of 1997 but there were still a little complications.

Because of some ultra-mindfucky, nefarious human schemes and some unintentional collateral damage too, so much of the man-made world has become a devastating force to my freedom.

Dictionaries define experience as “direct observation of or participation in events as a basis of knowledge”. Yet the cold dictionary definition leaves out the most important part of “experience” - the lasting impact on ones’ life.

Looking out at the spectacular African sunset, I saw that twilight had chosen to wash the sky with deep hues of orange, as it kissed the day goodbye. I watched the faint outline of the setting sun melting into the horizon.

I sat on the window ledge listening to the rain as it hit the white tents outside of our hostile. Just minutes before, when it had only been drizzling, the brash music of a marching band had poured through our open windows.

When I sent my friends my itinerary they scrutinized it and pointed out that I only had an hour to connect in Benin. Then came rhetorical questions about my sanity, what if I missed one of the connection flights?

Climbing out of the door, I dangled my body out over the edge and embraced the chilling air on my skin as my heart raced. I looked straight ahead at the top of the Alps that seemed to cover as far into the distance as I could see, each all lightly covered in snow.

As soon as I arrived in the centre of the old university town of Alcalá de Henares, my heart skipped a beat, my knees went wobbly and I felt like fainting (with desire). I was surrounded by policemen. Spanish policemen.

The most amazing stillness I have experienced was in the Alatau mountains near Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhstan.