Never judge a man until you’ve walked two moons in his moccasins.
Native American saying
When I first joined the Virtual Tourist online community, and was prompted to choose a travel motto, the above was the first thing that came into my head. It’s a saying that relates well to my feelings about the pleasures and benefits of travel.
Visiting other countries, meeting people from different cultures and beliefs to our own, helps to narrow the gaps between us. We start to appreciate all the things we have in common, and to understand why some may see things differently from ourselves. We learn that having a different belief from our own doesn’t make a person less of a person; likewise wearing different clothes (or indeed different shoes!), living in a different type of home, or having a different way of life. As someone once said, ‘There is more that unites us than divides us’.
Oh, and most of us wear shoes of some kind or another, as my photos below illustrate!
This selection of footwear (and in one case, non-footwear) is my contribution to Ann-Christine’s Lens Artists Challenge theme of Feet and Shoes. I’ve focused mainly on the latter, having looked at feet for a previous Friendly Friday challenge: These feet were made for walking.
Clogs for sale in a clog shop near Halifax, Yorkshire (also shown in my feature photo above)
Bathroom slippers at a traditional ryokan in Kyoto
Cowboy boots as street art in Wyoming – left and centre in Cheyenne, right in Sundance
Street art in Shoreditch, London
Street art in Tallinn, Estonia
One person’s street art is another’s trade – at the market in Ngueniene, Senegal
[used previously in my post about that market but too apt not to repeat here]
Our guide’s shoes, Koprivshtitsa, Bulgaria
Leather slippers for sale in a Marrakesh souk
Leather slippers for sale in a Marrakesh souk
Sleeping shopkeeper, Marrakesh
38 Comments
wetanddustyroads
You’ve got a wide variety of shoes here, Sarah! When walking the Camino, that’s the one thing I always look at … what boots/trail runners are other hikers wearing! Love your guide’s shoes in Bulgaria 😄.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you 🙂 Yes, I couldn’t take my eyes off those shoes our guide was wearing – I’m sure they distracted me from taking in some of her interesting information!
Amy
What a great selections of shoes around the world, Sarah!!
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Amy 😊
rkrontheroad
This post branched out nicely into so many shoe stories. Love the one in the market in Senegal – I’ve seen tied sneakers thrown over fences and wires in other places, but this is the best.
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks Ruth – that market was pretty amazing and that stall one of the most eye-catching!
JohnRH
Great series. Excellent.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you John 😀
thehungrytravellers.blog
Great theme for a post, Sarah…..have you been to Budapest yet? There’s something on this theme alongside the Danube which would interest you.
Sarah Wilkie
No, we’ve never yet made it to Budapest, although it’s on the list. But a couple of other people have picked up on the sight I’m guessing you’re thinking of, including Teresa here: https://mywanderings.travel.blog/2021/08/15/shoes-on-the-danube-bank/
thehungrytravellers.blog
Yep, that’s the one! Budapest is thoroughly recommended by the way – great city!
Sarah Wilkie
Yes, I’m sure we’d like it. But somehow when we have time for just a few days away we are drawn back to Italy, and when we have longer to spare we go beyond Europe – in ‘normal’ times, that is!
thehungrytravellers.blog
If you can find it, read our post about the “ruin bars”, I bet that would make you want to go there!
Sarah Wilkie
Off to search for it now … 🙂
rosalieann37
I often take photos of people’s feet which most of the time are wearing shoes. Sometimes the feet in the photos are because I was taking a photo of a manhole cover or some street detail, and sometimes I am aiming at the feet.
I admire both your photos and your stamina in doing a daily blog.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Rosalie 🙂 I’m not posting quite daily, but pretty often I admit – maybe five times a week! Once I can travel more again there will be fewer posts (and in any case in September when I have a couple of short trips planned) but I enjoy trying to do these challenges.
Anonymous
I have a techie friend coming to stay in early September for a few days so I’ll sit him down and get him to have a look at what’s happening in my computer. Another friend suggested it might be my upgrade with AVG. I don’t know. I’m always loathe to take security features out but I may try that. Anyway, as you are getting comments (though why did the last two go in as ‘anonymous’?) I needn’t worry for now.
Sarah Wilkie
I hope your friend can help 🙂 All the comments are showing as anonymous – I’m just guessing it’s you because the IP is the same each time and also because of the content.
These techie problems are such a pain for those of us without enough specialised knowledge to work out what’s going wrong. I currently have an issue with not getting pingbacks. Bluehost tell me it’s the Jetpack plugin, while Jetpack tell me it’s the Bluehost servers, and I don’t know enough about how these things work to be able to get to the bottom of it 🙁
Leya
Love your choices, Sarah! The Marrakesh ones are my favourites, but Senegal! How innovative hanging them like that. Space saving too.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Ann-Christine 🙂 When I saw your theme I thought I would find it hard to pull together a post but when I started to look through my archives and drag up ideas from my memories, I realised I had quite a selection to offer!
Leya
That’s the challenge!
I. J. Khanewala
That last photo is a good way to round off your post on shoes 🙂
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you – glad you liked it!
Stephanie Finnell
Your shoe post reminded me of the years momma worked at the shoe factory and would bring home shoes from the salesmen to ‘test’. Such fun!
Sarah Wilkie
Yes, that must have been fun – did you get to keep the shoes?!
Anonymous
I’ve returned for the 3rd time to see if my earlier comments have appeared, but no. I won’t bother writing any more as I’m not sure if you will see any comments I make, but ……………. lovely post!
Sarah Wilkie
I do appreciate you keeping trying – please see my fuller reply below and on your own blog 🤗
margaret21
A great collection. But I do particularly like that last shot, with not a shoe in sight.
Sarah Wilkie
Haha yes, I know what you mean about that last shot Margaret – I had to include it even though it didn’t quite fit my chosen theme 😆 I remember taking that in a real hurry, as I didn’t want him to wake up and spot what I was doing!
margaret21
!
Nemorino
An impressive collection of footwear.
Back on VirtualTourist, I used to change my travel motto every few months. I have listed a few of them here: https://operasandcycling.com/the-mini-room/
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks Don 🙂 I think I only ever had the two mottos – this one and then the quote from Joni Mitchell’s Amelia: ‘I slept on the strange pillows of my wanderlust’
Nemorino
Yes, I remember the one from Joni Mitchell.
Pat
A very interesting collection, Sarah.
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks Pat, glad you liked them!
Anonymous
I love the way your mind works and this post is such a cheering one. You have such great ideas for photographs when you travel, I have only one of shoes/slippers and that was in Turkey although I have seen lots of others that I should have taken, so I’m a bit slow when it comes to having ideas like that. I’m apt to photograph people and friends more than things and then I can’t use them for posting. Never mind. I’ll sit this one out. Loved the clogs, by the way. I started wearing clogs when I visited Sweden often years ago but grew out of the habit. I wish I could still wear them as they would be so good for the garden but I tried recently and found them too heavy.
Anonymous
Really fun post Sarah. Have to vote for the cowboy boots-/and if course the closing feet!😊
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Mari. Can I say first that I have no idea why all your comments need approving these days. It doesn’t seem to be happening with anyone else. I was going to try messaging you to discuss it further but you don’t seem to have a ‘contact me’ form?
I do really appreciate you making the effort to read and comment. If I don’t pick them up and approve them immediately it’s because I’m not online, not because I’m not receiving them! I’m glad you enjoyed this post. I do tend to look out for and photograph details – so much so that I sometimes get home from a trip and realise that I don’t have any photos of whole buildings, only a bit of tiling on the roof or a statue above the door!
Yes, I can see clogs could be good for gardening (I guess that’s why many people turn to Crocs) but I need softness in my shoes 🙂