Thanks?The twenty-fourth?book that I’ve finished reading this year is Bill Bryson’s “Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe”. Starting from Oslo, Bryson embarks on his solo revisit of Europe, stopping at big cities and small towns until he finally reaches Istanbul, the borderline between Europe and Asia. As he hops from one destination to he next, he comments with a witty and sarcastic tone on his encounters with the eccentricities of each city.

Bryson definitely has a knack for humour; I can’t count how many times his vivid descriptions have made me giggle. However, they may be inappropriate and crude at times, which may not be very suitable for young readers. Nevertheless, reading his travel accounts were nostalgic as I revisited the European cities that I’ve wandered in through his writing. Towards the end, I began to contemplate the meaning and purpose of travelling; as Bryson mentions, in a foreign land your language comprehension is almost equivalent to an infant, you feel displaced as you are stripped from the comforts of home, and you spend an incredible quantity of time and money that you normally wouldn’t spend to restore the comfort that you wouldn’t have lost if you hadn’t left home. This sounds like self-torture, but perhaps it’s a break from the normal routine that may bring some fresh thoughts and experience, that make us appreciate what we took for granted. Hopefully I’ll be able to revisit those European cities through new lens and explore new eccentricities in the future.?