The moments I enjoy the most when I travel are the weird, unexpected ones I stumble into – moments that occur mostly because I make questionable decisions and am terrible at planning.
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Yesterday in Bath, instead of taking the road less traveled, I decided to take the road not at all traveled, AKA I’m pretty sure I accidentally trespassed on some private property/farmland. However, I needed to get to a specific vantage point to get a great photo I wanted.
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It was the end of a long day in which my iPhone had informed me I had walked 9.5 miles (15.3 km for my international friends who use normal systems of measurement) up and down inclines. My energy was giving out as I was climbing this last stretch of hill. I was so exhausted and breathing so hard that I didn’t hear a fully grown horse moving in the trees next to me until he came out of the grove and was standing about 3 feet to my left. We spotted each other and both jumped back a little; we were both pretty surprised. Maybe he was tired too.
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I spent some time in a silent staring contest, trying vaguely to remember if I had ever read about a horse charging someone because they felt threatened. But I backed away and he soon lost interest, going to find two other mares further up the field.
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I just stood there, enjoying this bizarre moment I was accidentally experiencing: lost in a field of horses, taking in the bright, deep green, slightly overcast English countryside, looking at various vegetable gardens further up the hill and trying to find the slightly flattened, duller grass that indicated a footpath, thinking about how that same morning I had been running to catch my bus at crowded Victoria Station in the very center of London, making my way through the daily rush hour stampede of smartly-dressed City boys.
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Don't you love the little moments and realizations you get on the road?