Passages Through Paradise: An Old Man Reviews His Early Foreign Travels

Around thirty-five years have passed since this author first embarked on a long sojourn through Western Europe, the Middle East and East Africa. No one would consent to calling it a remarkable trip, nor one of great significance. No profound discoveries were made nor any major contributions that reshaped the land or any of its people. What it did provide was an interior as well as exterior examination of the young author as he sojourned about the world, what he felt about himself and how he perceived the world at the time of his encounters. What I am attempting to do in this new version is to add comments pertinent to any particular paragraph wherever it seemed appropriate to do so. Some of these comments were made many years ago, some are of more recent date. These latter I have placed in italics so as to separate them from the original notes this author made during his lengthy sojourn. In this way it can be seen why the impressions were made and whether any new comments would add any help to a future traveler reading this narrative. This of course is not meant to be a travel guide such as the many hundreds that can be found in many editions everywhere they are sold. Rather it is merely meant to convey an approach to travel itself for those who are more travel than tourist minded. Crossing a portion of the great Sahara desert in Egypt and Sudan by car with virtually no aid whatsoever is certainly a prime example of a travel adventure no tourist would ever dream of embarking upon.