Traveling historical information for starting period :
We all go on vacation, usually to the sea, if in any way possible. Or to the mountains to ski. Well, there are enough places one can go to and visit, and be diverted, of course. As long as it’s exotic enough and doesn’t remind us of our everyday life it’s perfect. One might ask what’s wrong with everyday life but that question is beside the point. To get away from the routine, to take a break, as we say, from life itself. That’s what we all want and crave for. And there are so many ways of spending one’s holiday travelling...just think of the many offers that jump at us from every corner of our surroundings: holiday on the beach, to relax. Adventure holidays, without endangering us, naturally. Educational trips to broaden the view, and I could go on and on. The newest thing is actually extreme sports, such as rock climbing and the like. Ever thought about why we seek the danger? Why we seem unable to stop trying to find ever more exotic and thrilling activities? I guess, this is simply a reflection of society’s not being at ease with life as a whole. People search for the ultimate kick, for whatever reason. The modern human being is used to travelling, and addicted to it. As soon as we have a day off, we are heading for... well, for everywhere, really, as long as it’s not here!
But what is this- our- notion of travelling? Of moving, and finding new places? When did it start? For most people are aware that it has not always been that way. In fact, nobody who didn’t have to would move away from home, no matter for how long. The whole community was identity and there was no life possible outside this circle of humans. The place were you were born an brought up was considered the identity of a person. One was only whole when being at home. Any other place would change the usual and familiar identity into a foreign and alien one. In this way identity was shaped, and in many instances still is shaped that way. One would not travel because to be away from home was to be miserable. Homesickness did not have any counterpart concept, no one longed to be away from where they belonged. The word travel actually derives from the Latin word for torture which in itself is statement enough about the people’s notions about travelling, or moving.
While we today conceive travelling as mind-broadening, and believe that it helps us to find our identity, this was conceived quite differently in earlier times. Individualism and personal identity are concepts that did not really have any place in early societies. Or at least not in the way we think of it now. Nevertheless, in many cultures the process of growing up is only seen as completed when the member of the community has undergone a certain initiation. Part of this rite was usually to spend a certain period of time alone somewhere away from society. During this time the person was to meditate and find him/herself and his/her place in the circle of life. This tradition can still be traced through the centuries: when apprenticeship was over, the young man would be given the status of a journeyman, which depicts him as someone who leaves home and travels the country in search for work. And only when he has proven himself worthy in his trade he may return home.
When the Roman Empire stretched all over Europe soldiers and officers alike were moved around as it seemed necessary to the commander in chief. Sometimes soldiers would be stationed far away from their native home but would be granted to always return to their families when their services were not immediately required. Often a whole family was moved to a different location and be uprooted in the literary sense of the word. Other members of the military would be transferred and then set up house wherever they came to hold a permanent office. So people mingled with each other and created homes in many different ways but at the heart of everyone was still the desire to return home if in any way possible.
Christianisation
When Constantine the Great made the Christian belief the official religion of the Roman Empire in 313 pilgrimages became popular and even developed into and organised business. People could book rooms, guides and transportation in any bank of the ports of Geneva or Venice form hence pilgrims would embark on their journey. Pilgrimages was the only kind of travelling that was practised voluntarily, although most people also had a good reason to go on pilgrimage usually to save their immortal soul. Another important fact about medieval travelling that ought to be mentioned is the belief in paradise being somewhere in India or thereabouts. Missionaries were constantly looking for paradise and Johannes of Marignola even stylised himself to have been the legatus usque prope paradisum.Nevertheless, his early search for paradise on earth can, in no way, be compared to the later idea of finding the perfect untouched land that can be cultivated to one’s personal use. The first travelogues we have are from the early medieval ages and all of them are exclusively written, or dictated by, people who were forced to leave their home. Hans Schildberger for example was forced to spend 31 years in Asia Minor to where he had been brought as a political prisoner. He, of course, was not set free to go home but he had to escape captivity secretly to see his home country again.
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