Sydney Journal Six

Permalink 6 Comments

FUJI5148

There is someone I need to mention who has nothing to do with this post. Someone put on this planet to endure. Put here to party, to explore, to make stupid moves, to fall in love from country to country. Someone put here to pool their money, sleep in the most horrid of hovel. Someone we’ve all probably been at one point in time, but age ourselves out of. The being I’m referring to is the backpacker. Maybe you are a backpacker now, or maybe you only view them at a distance. Bad haircuts, bad clothes, scurrying around places like the train station or the edges of the more respectable part of the city. Saving every penny to extend the dream.

I was once a part of this tribe. Proudly. Made lifelong friends. Look back on this time with only fond memories, of even the worst of times. The intestinal madness. The 29-hour bus rides. The dirt floors. The icy showers. But also the moments of love and freedom. Of knowing that the one you just met, the one who consumed you at that very moment, was also living under a very loose set of rules about partnership. The entire sum of your life’s contents on your back or around your neck.
FUJI5146
No email. No computers. No phones. Life without a filter. A life smoked to the filter. This tribe should be respected. Power on backpacker. You are carrying the torch for the rest of us. You are the ones leaving the cave to investigate. You are the ones living with the purpose that capitalism drains from our DNA.
FUJI5150
Yesterday was hard to explain, so I’m not even going to try. Certain things happened, others didn’t. A few images on the way from point A to point B. An opening of The Lost Rolls, which went well and was packed. Books and magazines were sold. A chance encounter with other photographers. A dinner with a friend. A walk home through the city. A search for a disposable camera. More on this later.
FUJI5200

Comments 6

  1. Reply

    Daniel, long time reader, first time commenting. Your posts speak to the wandering dreamer inside each of us. Living vicariously through travels such as yours. Love the images of this current journey. Thanks for making time to post all the things you do on Shifter. It is inspirational.
    Your post cards have me jonesing for a portable printer ….

    1. Post
      Author

      Hey Mark,
      Get a printer!! You won’t regret it. Thanks for those words. Appreciate it. Shifter is fluid, but I’m liking the range of “stuff.” Thanks again.

  2. Reply

    The exhibition looks great!

    Even backpackers are not what they used to be 🙂 If you check into a hostel nowadays, every backpacker spends their time looking into Facebook/Snapchat etc on a computer or phone. Most backpackers would rather starve than not have wifi. The matrix has reached that group of people too!

    1. Post
      Author

      Flemming,
      That really sucks to hear. Really sucks. This stuff has destroyed so much of our real lives. It’s too bad. Trump will fix it. Don’t worry so much.

  3. Reply

    I was there. In Australia I slipped into the role of a backpacker for a couple of month, it was liberating, but when I went back to Germany I realized how much freedom I had. Not immediately, just over period of 2-3 weeks I felt the pressure again that society is imposing on us.. Or should I say what I let society impose on me..
    There are no rules – clothing, hair style, your general appearance, it doesnt matter, you dont care, you are allowed to not care. You take on this identity and you can allow yourself to behave differently, to embrace the unknown.

    Its a bummer that most of us are never to be able to be free of judgement. Judgement of our own and others.

    But I think living this way is not limited to age, you dont have to call yourself a backpacker. Be a traveler or better, an adventurer.

    1. Post
      Author

      Michael,
      You are VERY right. I don’t get it either. We live these life changing times then come home and conform.

Leave a comment