Writing and travel

Does travel give me ideas for my writing? Not usually. Looking through old photos, some caught my eye, reminding me of significant/memorable events, but few have directly led to a story or poem. Sometimes I get a glimpse of a life style that I can expand into a story - a lifestyle that exists in England too (market-stall owner, homelessness, etc) but seeing it in a new setting brings it to life.

This is from a calendar bought in Prague when Russian things were easy to buy. I've published a piece set there - "Prague '86". I was inter-railing at the time and saw many cities, rarely staying a night in them, never returning to many of them.

The Bosphorus. I liked Istanbul, and we visited several other interesting places on the same tour. I published a piece called "Istanbul" about walking on the walls, looking down on people's gardens, then descending into a suburban side-street.

Gran Canaria. I think this will appear in a story sooner or later. By the leaning tower is a swingers bar - I saw a poster about it after and didn't understand it all. The activity on the nearby dunes was a surprise to me as well.

My shadow on a ski-lift in Italy. Though I've been to Italy extensively, I've only had one Italy-based story published - "First there is a mountain". "Out of the blue" was mostly set in a basement jazz club on a Milan canal, but it could have been anywhere.

The morning after we'd spent a night in the Sahara, Morocco. The camels are tied up off-screen. An experience, but not something to write about.

A backstreet in Essaouira, Morocco, taken from outside a fish restaurant. We bought fish from the market, delivered it to the restaurant and ate there later in the day. I think some of the city's workers are taking a break from the sun and wind here. That alley will appear in a story.

Marrakech. I'd wanted to visit it in my twenties, when I inter-railed as far as Fez. I finally arrived in my sixties. My wife had a cooking lesson there, buying live chicken in the market first - a culture-interaction detail I might use eventually.

Morocco in the mountains. This multi-generational family home has appeared in the final scene of an unpublished story.

The Nile. Cairo with its non-stop car-horns, or the quieter life along the river (we stayed in Aswan for 2 nights, long enough to get to know a few streets) might feature one day. I set a poem - "Escape" - in an Egyptian hotel before I visited the country.

The Taj Mahal from afar, decades ago. You might expect a train holiday in India (Varanasi, Amber, etc) to provoke stories but nothing has happened yet.

I think my most productive holidays are revisits - a chance to compare my old and newer selves.