Stricklandia

Michael Strickland's blog on all things travel: news, deals, destinations, dreams and more.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

What movies have inspired you to travel?

Though I have a film degree, I'm more of a travel nut now than a movie junkie. However, there's no question that movies have inspired me to travel on more than one occasion. As I look back now, I think of the scenes of Italy in "A Room with a View" and the beautiful Mediterranean in "Il Postino." The dramatic scenery from "The Lord of the Rings" has put New Zealand on my wish list, and I even have distant memories of World War II movies watched in my youth that gave me the bug to travel to some far-off Pacific island.

What movies have inspired you to travel?
 

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1 Comments:

Blogger avra said...

It was about this time, a year ago, I went with my girlfriend to see a documentary on Antonio Gaudi, the famed Catalan architect, whose work I had long admired, but knew only from coffee table books.
The film, by Hiroshi Teshigahara, was without dialog. Just a rather ethereal score, and his camera panning in, around, and through many of Gaudi's most famous buildings in his home city of Barcelona.

I had never been to Spain but always wanted to go. Many years ago, traveling in the south of France, my companions continued on into the Iberian peninsula, but because Franco was still in power I could not bring myself to join them. I grew up with friends whose parents had fought in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade against the Fascists during the Spanish Civil War. So I very self righteously consigned myself to remaining on the Cote d'Azure.
Oh, the sacrifices we make for principle! But that was thirty years ago, and I had always had a tinge of regret at having missed that opportunity to see a land whose culture, language, food and history I much admired.

Coming out of the movie, I said "We have to go to Barcelona". We booked a flight in a matter of weeks, and last summer spent an amazing ten days going in, around, and through every Gaudi building in Barcelona. I even managed to sneak in a scuba dive up the coast, on our only foray beyond the city.

I hope to go back to do a road trip and see more of the Catalan region, which incidentally was a hotbed of resistance to Franco's forces, and was brutally crushed upon his triumph. They still harbor much resentment toward the central government in Madrid, maintain their own language and culture, and a fierce regional pride.

So... go to the movies! You never never know where it might take you.... Avra

March 21, 2008 at 1:43 AM  

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