✍️ By Riaan M. Odendaal – published 29 May 2025 viaThe Daily Verdict
“Every departure holds its breath in the port.”
We romanticise destinations. We chase arrivals.
But very few talk about the place you leave from—
The platform, the gate, the harbour. The port of origins.
It’s never just logistics.
It’s ritual.
It’s decision.
It’s the moment when your comfort ends and your courage begins.
✈️ Cape Town – The Edge I Know
This is the coastline that raised me.
The mountain that steadies me.
But come October, it becomes my departure point again—
towards new flags, new tracks,
and perhaps a familiar kind of solitude.
🇩🇪 Munich – Visit 10, Ticked in Lederhosen
From Amsterdam, I’ll cross into Germany—
not just to raise a stein at Oktoberfest,
but to complete a promise to myself: Visit 10.
Not as a tourist. But as a traveller who listens to the way places echo home.
🚆 Through the Balkans – The Long Way That Heals
From there, I may board a train again—
through Slovenia, Croatia, North Macedonia—
until Thessaloniki opens like a psalm at dusk.
Some journeys should not be rushed by flight.
Some routes must be earned by silence and steel.
🛂 Two Worlds in One Passport
Mine says: United States.
But it’s carried South African soil in every crease.
This trip isn’t about checking boxes—
It’s about letting borders bend into meaning.
🌍 The Truth About Travel
Travel isn’t about the places.
It’s about the version of you that arrives—
in Munich with a smile,
in Thessaloniki with stillness,
in Atlanta with perspective.
So yes, I’m headed abroad.
But I carry my port with me—
Cape Town, always at my back,
reminding me:
You don’t escape home.
You extend it.
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