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 the counter laughs, beaming a smile from ear to ear. Daily, people come up to this glass case confined guy, probably just whizzing past his existence to get inside the museum, saying “two please” like he could be replaced with a machine. This exchange was unique. This man made him chuckle, giving him some small piece of entertainment for the day, while making him feel like a real person. That jovial exchange gets a response from the ticket man. He remarks, “So one adult and four students then”, and gives the man and his family an unwarranted discount just for being funny.
I often look for travel role models, those travelers you see that take advantage of every exchange, every moment they are in a new place. They can walk up to anyone and strike up a conversation, language barriers and cultural ways aside. They have fun with their travels, seizing travel as an opportunity they may not have again. Their way of travel is magically universal, something few possess yet many want.
That goofy, getting deals with a smile, man is my Dad and travel role model. His talent for traveling is something I strive for on my solo travels. I recently joined a family vacation to Scandinavia and revisited traveling with my Dad and family. Here are a few things I have learned from traveling with my Dad over the years that anyone can practice.
Surprisingly, this photo was not staged. Figuring out the way around Stockholm
Talk To People
It sounds simple enough but everyday traveling, there are exchanges to be had. If you just walk up to the ticket window or food stand and only order, you have missed a travel opportunity for conversation that could change your entire experience. My Dad is a master at this one. Last week in Copenhagen, he proceeded to have a 20-minute conversation with the guy behind the hot-dog stand. From quizzing him about US presidents on American money to intricacies of life in Denmark, their exchange seemed meaningful to me. I’m sure sitting behind a hot-dog stand all day has its ups and downs, mostly downs. You might as well leave locals with a bit more, perhaps even reverse a few stereotypes about your country. Talking to anyone may be the best travel activity.
Wear A Smile
No matter where my Dad is going, hotel lobby or a restaurant, he may butcher the language of the country, but he always begins any exchange with a smile. I noticed on this last trip how much better people treat you if you always greet them with a smile. This can be a challenge for me as sometimes my redheaded temper gets in the way of pushy people. The best way to travel and enjoy your experience is not to get angry or upset when someone overcharges you or hits your shoulder walking down the street. Just smile and move on.
Travel Like You Won’t Return
This can be a debatable point for many. I often like to think I will return to places I wanted more time with, strolling its streets or getting a better impression than just a 2 day stopover. I am not talking about traveling like it is a marathon and trying to see everything in two days. Rather, my travel role model has taught me to treat every place with the respect of a first time acquaintance. Perhaps it is the doctor in him, seeing life and death daily, but you really don’t know if you will return. Make the most of your experience in any way you find enriching.
Seizing a travel photo opportunity
While travel creates an individual, a confidence and personality only you possess, it seems to be an experience that you need models or guides to aid the process. If you consult a guidebook for where to go, you should also pack a guide of a traveler you admire. Especially with solo travel, you will step outside any introverted tendencies and use your model as your guide rather than just that heavy 500 page grouping of advice and tips in your backpack. Much like growing up and having celebrities, authors, sports figures, brothers and sisters to look up to, travel like you are a baby. Grow up along the way, but always carry your travel role model’s guide for travel in your pocket.
Do you have a travel role model? What do you admire most about your travel role model’s way of travel?
This was a surprising treat– I wasn’t expecting it to be about your dad, and I love that it was. It reminded me of my dad, not necessarily for the great reasons you mentioned, but because he has literally traveled the world and has lived in Italy, England and Indonesia without ever complaining. He has done many of the things that I aspire to do. How fun for you and your family to have had that trip together.
You are such a good writer!!
I love this post – makes me think of my dad too!
I think I get a lot of my character and (possibly horrible) sense for humor from my father.
I also love talking to almost anyone who will hold a conversation with me when I travel. I was actually accused of flirting with someone on my last trip to NYC but really I just wanted to talk to the person! My best experience of it lately was last week – Candice Walsh and I were eating ice cream at the Staten Island Ferry terminal and some of the guys who work there started talking to us. We sat there and talked to them for 15 minutes and it was one of the most entertaining points of my trip! 🙂
Great post! A smile indeed opens doors 🙂
Awww, what a beautiful tribute to your dad!!! Those are some great points you raised.
What a great post! And how lucky you are to have your dad as your travel role model. It sounds like you’ve definitely learned some valuable travel lessons from him, and had lots of fun (that “photo op” of the two of you is priceless).
What a sweet post, your Dad sounds like such a great guy.
A sweet post 🙂 You have a great travel role model, and it’s great he’s your own Dad. I’m not sure I have yet a travel role model, people surround me happen to not traveling a lot. Backpackers in internet forums and blogs have been my inspiration.
I really like your point about talking to the locals when you go to purchase something from them. Why not chat with them like a human being, make them smile? It doesn’t take anything from us, and gives something to them. Being in a service position has to be really boring at times, especially when people just view you as a food vending machine or whatever. The pluses to these conversations is you might learn something you wouldn’t otherwise and it makes you feel good. Worth remembering.
I think I’d like your Dad. 🙂
My role model is travel-writer Eric Newby. He spent his entire career being gloriously amateur-minded in everything he did: traveler, editor, writer, fashion industry bigwig. And by ‘amateur’, I mean: never taking himself too seriously, always wading in enthusiastically to see what happens, always asking for help and never letting his ego get in the way of learning something new.
To quote: “My life, when I look back on it, is one of being sacked or threatened to be sacked….and I’ve managed, in a sense, to have capitalized on being an idiot”.
For all these reasons, he’s a hero of mine. (Alas that I’ll never meet him).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2006/oct/23/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries
Love it!!! I definitely didn’t think it was about your dad based on the beginning. That’s wonderful that he has become your travel role model. I actually feel the same way about my dad, and it’s fun to have someone like that to look up to. Love the pics of you two!
I couldn’t agree more with the advice to ‘talk to people’. For me, it is the human interactions that are far more rewarding than any specific sight or destination and the only way to have such interactions is to just start talking.
Your dad seems like the perfect travel companion!
Excellent idea for a post Suzy. I especially like and agree with the idea of wearing a smile. It’s amazing the doors you can open, and the people you can friend by simply showing some kindness and smiling.
I really love this post!! It’s great to have someone to look up to, especially when things lose their glamour. It’s nice to be reminded that we are all just people passing and we can make the most of these interactions. It makes a better day for everyone!
Loved this post Suzy. Sounds like you guys are having a wonderful trip. So glad for your amazing experiences, even in what many consider mundane, or actually never consider! Your dad is a master at chatting with everyone! Lucky you! Especially love the charming picture of your dad and Laura. Great memories and you capture them so beautifully with your writing Thanks for todays smile Suzy!
Great post Suzy! For me, my friend Liz is my travel role model. She can talk to anyone and has the smile down to a science. She’s traveled her whole life and gives me the courage to be open while traveling.
This was a really lovely post Suzy. You made me miss my Dad so much :(. I hadn’t really thought about travel role models before. You’ve definitely got me thinking about who mine might be.