At least once a year I make sure I visit a new destination. A place that I've never been before so I can get lost in the unique experience of a first time discovery.
To be a stranger, to feel new. Maybe it's a place I’ve always wanted to visit; sometimes a place that I've seen once in a picture so beautiful I felt an instant attraction that became an obsession that burnt until I visited.
But most of my travels are not to new places. They are return visits. The first was Berlin. I got hooked on Berlin over 10 years ago and still can’t get enough, even when I visit 3-4 times a year. Lofoten is my newest obsession, but as has been Cinque Terre and Barcelona to name just to a few, both of which I still hope to visit again and again...
But why? What is the pull that always draws me back to a familiar place, to walk the same path, to revisit familiar haunts and faces and undoubtedly photograph the same scenes?
The familier, the safe, the known?
For sure all of them.
But mainly to understand. To fully understand. To know. To experience. To feel.
To get under the skin and not just visit like a visitor - In - Visit - Out....
But to get to know, overtime, to fully understand a place and to feel it.
And this takes many visits - time after time....
