A Non-trivial Travel Experience

Long-suffering readers are probably tired of my complaints against the trivialness of travel-newbies or the romantic escapism of wannabees. OK then,

let's keep it positive. Every now and then a reader runs across an exception to the trivia of travel, and it can occur in the most unlikely place. 

I read bicycle touring blogs. Normally they show pretty postcards of landscapes, punctuated with mind-numbing prose about camping details. Or ride statistics. Everybody has a cycle odometer these days. If they rode  56.43 miles today, as read off the screen of the odometer, they will include the '3' in the hundredths place in their daily post, as if the reader really cares. Now I ask you, folks, what does the hundredths place have to do with the Human Condition or the state of the Universe in general?

But there are exceptions. A bicycle tourer was going through Egypt during their recent uprising. He stayed at a hostel next to Tahrir Square. He actually had the guts (or recklessness) to go out into the demonstrations. Presumably he didn't take his bicycle. His photos are good. His writing is somewhat hard to read, but that's not the point. Here was a real travel adventure. I envy him.