Solitude

- Torino, Italy, 2007 -

Torino, or Turin, was the very first Italian city I visited. It was never on my travel wishlist and furthermore, at that time, I could not speak a word of Italian; it was one of those irresistible offers on the SNCF's website where we just had to pay 35 euros to take the TGV (my favourite train) to go there and 45 euros for a first-class seat on our return. It was only when I was there that I learnt it had just hosted the Winter Olympics just 3 months ago and the city still had remnants of the decorations all over. With a tourist card for just 18 euros, we could just about do everything possible for two days, and boy, was there plenty to do and see there! Museums, boat cruises, royal palaces, a special tram ride up a hill to get a panoramic view of the city, and the list goes on. Infatti, e' una citta bellissima. :)

How could I forget the lovely old Muslim couple who owned the hotel where we stayed and treated us like their grandchildren; it was hilarious each time Loren and I tried to communicate with them via hand gestures and a mixture of English, Spanish and French. When Loren needed change to call her father and wish him happy birthday, the lady walked with me to the shop nearby to get change. Not only that, they gave us free 1.5-litre bottles of soft drinks (something that we could not stop laughing about), biscuits during our stay and even bread to make sandwiches for our train ride home when we said the shops were closed that day.

So you see, one of the reasons why I love travelling is that I get to meet people who show such unconditional kindness to strangers. Perhaps I am blessed for God never fails to keep me safe in my journeys and let me experience such kindness everywhere I go. But I digress. I titled this entry "Solitude" for it was my initial intention to talk about what I was feeling earlier in the day, but just as I seem to be getting epiphanies these days with my endless thoughts, I got another one in the midst of writing - that even in solitude, one is never alone. It is the peace we seek, not escape, when we choose to seek solitude. For solitude is a matter of choice, while loneliness is not.

Yet again I have procrastinated, but I still have a day left to finish my community service report. While there is a thin line between optimism and delusion, why should one despair over inconsequential deadlines, when the true deadline every human faces is that of death. Again, there is a thin line between being fatalistic and realistic. With these precarious thin lines, may all of us have the benefit to be on the right side.