Never Been Abroad

Author: iSab

  • Charcoal sketch of the Mangalore coast at sunset, fishing boats on a long beach, red-tiled rooftops and palms, a river mouth and headland - never been abroad

    Mangalore

    Three times this coast reached for me by a side door, and three times the door shut. I can name its food dish by dish and have never once tasted it at source.

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  • Charcoal sketch of the Istanbul skyline across the water, a great domed mosque and minarets on the hill, ferries on the strait - never been abroad

    Istanbul

    A man who has never crossed a border, dreaming of the one city that is itself a crossing — where you change continents in the time it takes a tea to cool.

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  • Charcoal sketch of the Manhattan skyline at dusk seen across the water, towers crowded against a pale sky - never been abroad

    New York

    Of all the cities I have never seen, New York is the one I have seen most — pre-dreamed on my behalf, in advance, by everybody.

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  • Charcoal sketch of Hong Kong's towers crowded down to the harbour, the hills behind, a ferry on the water - never been abroad

    Hong Kong

    Hong Kong I dream of vertically — a city of millions folded onto a few scraps of land, assembled mostly out of things that are quietly leaving.

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  • Charcoal sketch of Pangong Tso, a long thin lake under bare high mountains, the water stretching away into the distance - never been abroad

    Leh–Ladakh · Pangong Tso

    Ladakh is the place I have the fewest excuses about. It is in my own country. There is no ocean here to blame — only me, and a road I keep not taking.

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  • Charcoal sketch of Table Mountain rising flat-topped over Cape Town and the wide bay, a scrap of cloud spilling over its rim - never been abroad

    Cape Town

    Cape Town is one of the few places I was offered not just to visit but to work in — and let go. I keep a receipt for this particular longing.

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  • Charcoal sketch of Santa Maria della Salute across the misty Venice lagoon at dawn, a lone gondola on the water - never been abroad

    Venice

    No city has been handed to me more often, or visited less. I have owned Venice for thirty years without once paying the fare.

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  • Charcoal sketch of the Varanasi ghats at dawn from a boat on the Ganga, temple spires and mist over the river - never been abroad

    Varanasi

    Of all the places I have not been, Varanasi is the unforgivable one — a night’s train from home, and somehow never once made.

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  • Charcoal sketch of Lake Zürich at first light, a single white pleasure-boat on the flat pale water, the low old town and faint alps beyond - never been abroad

    Zürich

    I know Zürich the way you know a word you have read a hundred times and never once heard said aloud.

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