as i have quoted before,
"this is the magic of travel. you leave your home secure in your own knowledge and identity. but as you travel, the world in all its richness intervenes. you meet people you could not invent; you see scenes you could not imagine. your own world, which was so large as to comsume your whole life, becomes smaller and smaller until it is only one tiny dot in time and space.
you return a different person..." ~ kent nerburn