The train to the Rome airport is hot and sweaty. It smells of scents you don’t even want to know. The cobalt blue seats stick to legs just as the gum on the trash can next to me clings to the metal casing. As I wait for the train to depart, I am pleased to have a cabin all to myself. The train is far from full. Then, a foreign man pops his head in and asks in broken English, “Is free?”. I smile and nod, indicating that he can sit in one of the five open seats. Suddenly he multiplies into 5 people, bringing with him his entire clan. The even sweatier men pile in, smelling of lack of shower and Continue Reading
Packing A Guide From Your Travel Role Model
A man walks up to a museum ticket window with his family waiting behind him. This scene plays out daily throughout the world. The leader of the pack is purchasing the tickets, braving the cultural confusion and language barriers for his family. However, this man is not your ordinary traveler. As he leans back on his heels to see the prices, he smiles at the man behind the glass window saying, “Let’s see, we have one student and three adults, and I’m 16, so student for me as well”. He says this with salt and pepper hair and clear hints of age older than 16 years. The twenty-something behind Continue Reading
Conquering The Travel Aspect To Solo Travel
Solo travel is often looked at as though you are traveling to the moon. You are going there by yourself? Aren’t you going to be lonely? Will you be able to figure out the trains on your own? Should you really be traveling as a woman all alone? These are questions of those that I see whiz on past me in groups, with their families, or hand in hand with that significant other. They normally see travel as something you can only do with someone and never alone. A great deal of travel involves figuring out where you are going. You must rely on taxis, boats, trains, planes, buses, bikes and cars Continue Reading
Embracing Tourist Season
A woman unknowingly backs up onto my foot to get the perfect shot of Palazzo Vecchio. In the middle of the road, a couple adorned with two big backpacks clutches a map and stares into the blue sky, looking for answers to the question, “where am I?”. Lines of people snake around streets more so than cars do. Prices rise on restaurant menus in the city center. It is tourist season in Florence. All around the world, locations invade with tourists, willing and ready to explore somewhere for two weeks of vacation. The tourist versus traveler debate is a ridiculous one. As much as I complain Continue Reading
Keeping Your Sanity On An Airplane
I look out the tiny airplane window. I see lightning make contact with the ground every few minutes. The pint sized plane makes a screeching stop as we prepare to charge the inevitable. Lifting into the air, a thunderstorm is looming, hence the rapid departure. The turbulence warrants clutches to the armrest. Finally everything quiets down, or so I think. The man behind me begins attacking the seat pocket in front of him, also known as the back of my chair. As I receive an unexpected and unwarranted back massage, he appears to be searching for buried treasure left behind from the previous Continue Reading
Taking The Road Toward Emotional Travel Preparation
Most airlines will send you an email a week or two before your flight with the subject headline, “Prepare For Your Upcoming Trip”. The content is informative, explaining how to check in for your flight, what luggage weight restrictions to know, how to navigate through the terminal, or when you actually take flight. In my mind, these emails are wrongly titled. What can prepare you for travel? Most of us rush out to buy new luggage. We sell our belongings for extra cash. The necessary call to the credit card company must be made. We attempt fitting all necessary liquids into a minuscule Continue Reading
My Case For A Three Month Vacation
Travel, like everything else in life, involves time. From the moment you must press purchase, you know your set travel dates. You know when you will be leaving for a destination and when you will be returning home. Everything is within a certain time frame. Some of us go for the standard two-week vacation for that is all our jobs, family commitments, or school will allow. Others decide to be daring, going around the world any where from 8 months to 2 years. Then, there are those that just never come home. Their travel time is indefinite. They have no home base. Their home is packed away in a Continue Reading