GLOBETROTTERS WRITING PROMPT

November Monthly Challenge — Gray

Black and white photos and travel memories

As the northern hemisphere is approaching late fall, many are occupied with other things than travel. I mean, who travels in November? Who likes the often gray, wet and cold month anyway?

Not many I’d say.

But there is more to travel, adventures on the road and exploring new cultures than just the colorful world displayed on social media. Travel can be mindful, slow, and even joyful on rainy days.

While we don’t want to support depressing thoughts on rainy gray November days, we want to inspire you to lean out of your comfort zone and share with us some black-and-white travel tales. Figuratively and literally monochrome.

Removing the colors

The first step to sharing a story in gray would be to remove the colors of some travel photographs. Any cellphone app has a feature to transform your images into monochrome, that shouldn’t be the issue. But remember the travel aspect of it.

Looking at the image below, I remember the day. It was rather windy and I was strolling around the streets looking for something to photograph. I walked past some stray dogs lazing around in the grass and captured some blooming flowers.

Coming around the corner, this food stall on wheels was zooming down the road creating a smile on my face almost instantly. I just love it how little the Thais need to create a business and some income. Plus, they are making the most delicious food ever. On these simple three-wheeled stalls.

Sharing stories of monochrome times

I am honest with you. I don’t have pictures of myself in black and white. My parents had colored film since before I was born.

But there are memories connected to some old images in my photo books, I am not sure if I remember that moment or just believe it’s a memory because of the stories shared each time I look at the picture.

My grandparents used to live at the edge of the Alps in southern Germany and we would visit them almost every weekend when I was a toddler.

My grandfather would walk with me down to the nearby pond where swans and ducks were home. Having a few bread crumbs in his pocket, he’d get the bird’s attention and feed them in front of me.

I’d like to ask you to go through your old black and white photos and find some travel photos. Can you remember the trip you did? Please share with us your memories.

Displaying something of historical importance

Where I think black and white pictures work well are castles, churches and other historical buildings. Their walls often don’t have much color anyway and some important historical events are rather dark and sad but don’t have to be.

When we woke up that morning, we couldn’t see the car from the window sill but still decided to stick to our plan and visit Raşnov castle.

Walking up from the parking lot, we entered the forest and disappeared in a thick layer of fog. We didn’t talk much but focused on breathing and were lost in our own thoughts.

When we reached the walls of the castle, we could barely see the watch tower next to us and yet, I decided to fly the drone. I just had the feeling the fog was lifting and the view from up there was going to be special.

It certainly was.

Experiencing something war-related

While we do look for happy destinations when on the road, we sometimes also explore museums with a dark history or end up unexpectedly in a dangerous situation that will stay in our memory.

When we stayed in northern Germany, there were a bunch of old military tanks spread across the forest behind our home. They were a collection of the rich airfield owner. But they were also a constant reminder of the cruelty of wars and the ones killing people as we speak. I couldn’t walk past these tanks without dropping my smile.

Lowering the level of comfort

Travel can be so diverse and that’s why we all enjoy exploring so much. Often, when on the road, we go much further out of our comfort zones than while living at home. We don’t require as much comfort, are happy to share a room with strangers and only need a fancy dinner every few nights.

This could be an inspiration to think about different levels of comfort you have been satisfied with while traveling. The step out of your comfort zone that was brave but embraced.

I remember when we drove to Sweden last year. We only had three nights and slept the first one on the floor of the ferry from Germany. We planned on staying the other two nights at campsites but once we saw the prices, we quickly changed our minds and decided for wild camping.

We drove up to a wonderful lake, used the water for cooking, cleaning and washing ourselves as we jumped into the freezing water before night time. We slept in the back of the car and it was raining during the night. But it is one of my favorite travel memories.

Learning to see beauty in small things abroad

Oftentimes we travel to tick off a bucket list. To see the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Colosseum in Rome and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. But visiting those places doesn’t bring us the most memorable moments. Usually.

When we ended up on a spontaneous work trip to Portugal last year and were stuck on a windy day in the city of Évora, we decided to wander around and smiled at so many small things.

We found a ruins of a Roman temple, marveled at walls hanging full of blooming flowers and remarked the beautiful lanterns mounted at the side of the houses. We sat down in a small café, had a beer and ate some snacks while taking it all in.

Not all bright and colorful tourist attractions are the places that create the best travel memories. Sometimes, a simple walk down an alley of a village in the Italian countryside is one of the travel tales lasting for a lifetime.

Focusing on architecture

We have talked a bit about historical and modern architecture. We collected stories of ancient ruins and of fear-creating skyscrapers. But what about the base of these buildings? The foundation?

When we walk down the streets of downtown whatever city we are in, we often just see dirty, scratched or boringly white walls next to us.

But maybe, there is more to these walls.

I remember exploring the countryside of Northern Germany on my Rollerblade one day when I entered this village. I passed a small brewery, several farm houses and a church when I stopped at this old building. It was abandoned, that was for sure. And I was wondering who once lived in there. But how well did they used to built houses, so they lasted for centuries?

Drought

Deserts might not be black or white and droughts can occur in any landscape but such occurrences certainly make us think about our existence and connection to nature.

Living in Namibia, I experienced one of the longest and worst droughts in the history of the country. I learned what it means to open the tap and have running water. A privilege. That is what it is. And it is something we might not have for much longer if we don’t learn to use it sparingly.

While traveling through the country, seeing deserts and non-deserts dry and barren, a new understanding for life on Earth developed in my mind.

Dark nights

While dark nights can create sad thoughts and cause depression, the darkest nights are what countless photographers are after and travel miles and miles for.

To see the endless sky filled with stars.

What about you? Have you ever gone on vacation solely out of the purpose of seeing the brightest stars shining on the darkest night?

I remember looking up for the first time. In Africa. My jaw dropped. I had never seen so many stars in my life. And the milky way, so bright. The night was clear and silent.

Snowy landscapes

If we’re focusing more on the bright side of white and black topics, we quickly come to snow and all adventures surrounding wintery landscapes.

It had snowed the night before and the trees were still hanging full of fresh powder when the sun appeared above the horizon. The sky was blue but everything else was covered in white.

It was the perfect day for me. I strapped on my snowboard and hit the deep powder snow.

Gray feelings in November

Sometimes, even when we travel, we aren’t in the happiest of our moods. Maybe because someone didn’t greet us in the morning, maybe because a fellow tourist woke us up at night or maybe because we’re scared of something.

It was a foggy day when we hiked through the wilderness of the Carpathian Mountains. We could barely see the hand in front of our eyes that was how thick the fog was and my father was hoping to see a bear. If we would see a bear in this weather, he would have been not more than five meters from us and certainly not a scenario I wanted to run into in the backcountry of Romania.

Black and white weather patterns

If it’s the clouds you captured while flying high above the continents, a dark gray rain cloud moving in above your holiday destination or the white snowflakes shining bright against the dark sky at night, weather is part of wherever we travel, so if there is something travel-related we’re here to listen.

The snow was falling gently from the sky. All sounds were dampened and I just heard my own foot steps on the snow-covered trail as I walked across the fields. It was a perfect night. A perfect winter night.

Share with us your inspiring travel memories

I think you got the idea. We are looking for your creativity this month. Stretch the topic and interpret it as you will. Make the article interesting, captivating and maybe even educative.

The topic is set.

Gray.

We are not looking for stories sharing a picture of your white house. We want to know how you stumbled upon that wall in a foreign city, state or country and which memories you connect with it.

Be creative.

If you need some ideas, here we go:

The Ultimate November Travel Destination

My First Time Seeing Snow

I Have Been Walking Down an Alley on a Gray November Day

The Most Fascinating Black and White Travel Pictures

This is How I Experienced A Gray Day in xxx

My Favorite City in Gray

I Didn’t Know I’d Fall in Love With Dark and Colorless Destinations

A Very Different Kind of Gray

I Never Understood Why People Would Travel in November

A requirement for the monthly challenge submissions is to tag 2 articles that either inspired you to go to this place, have quality content about the same country you’re talking about or maybe it’s just a travel piece you really enjoyed reading.

You can use the search function to review our publication and look for articles about your destination. It’s easy and a great way to show appreciation to other writers out here.

We’re looking forward to your submissions. As always, at the end of the month, the editors of Globetrotters will announce their winners. While we also submit our entries, we do not participate in the competition.

Please remember to follow our guidelines when submitting an article:

• The maximum article length must be 10 minutes.
• Always credit your images. We only accept your own photographs. Please review our image policy if unsure.
• Write your article in the form title-subtitle-title image.
• Please add the tag “monthly challenge”.
• Make sure that travel is still a focus of your story.
• List 2 articles and tag the writers who created them
• The challenge will run from November 1st until November 27th. We reserve the last days of the month to post the results from the challenge.
• For more clarification on submissions, visit the Globetrotters submission guidelines.

We, the team of editors at Globetrotters (JoAnn, Adrienne, Jillian, Michele & Anne) want to thank each of you for contributing to our publication. You’ve sent so many fascinating articles on past challenges and we can’t wait for the next ones.

Thank you.

Jillian Amatt has kicked off the challenge with the first prompt submission. Get inspired by her creative travel essay.

Read here the final post of our previous monthly challenge. We asked you to share your stories about the souvenirs you collected. In this article, the editors announce their personal winners: