|
Interesting question, Reb. But there'll be a different answer from anyone you ask.
I was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and I never took the city and its sites for granted. Then I moved to England, and even though the family re-located to Wigan, at the heart of industrial Lancashire, the same was true of the terraced rows, coal mines, slag heaps and the famous dark, satanic mills and murky canals.
I eventually broke into Fleet Street in London -- then the world hub of major newspapers -- and I travelled all over the world as a foreign correspondent (I was a newspaperman until ten years ago) and lived for long periods in Rome, Munich, Dublin, London again, Paris, New York, etc.
And, again the same was true wherever I was. Every day the city or town was new, every day was a thrill, every day was about discovery and seeing familiar sights from different angles. And the nights were pretty good, too.
For the past twenty-five years, I've lived in the wee French Mediterranean coastal town of Menton (great pictures if you want to Google it up), sandwiched between the Principality of Monaco and the Italian frontier ... and a ten minute drive in either direction takes me into two different countries with mind-boggling differences, one with a different language. And even a visit to the streets of my own town is still an adventure after all this time.
I guess some folks were just made to be ex-pats, and sometimes even those who, like me, still appreciate the beauty and charm of what was once 'home'. Cheers. Neil
|