Category Archives: USA

Travelers Don’t Know Where They Are Going

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Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.” – Paul Theroux

I must confess that I have more travel knowledge than computer skills.  I think I finally have this blog correct and have been able to send it to friends, family and facebook.   Sorry about the slow start up.  I’ll try to write more regularly. We have a new site.  Havefunflysafe@wordpress.com.

I don’t travel with a laptop or an ipad. (I do have an ipod and a kindle)   I take a computer break when I travel.  I read a lot more.   I get lost much more and usually have to ask real people for directions instead of mapquest and navigation.   I do a lot of research beforehand so anything that changes becomes an adventure.  I’m a planner so it is good for me to get out of my comfort zone.  The restaurants I plan to eat in   get changed the moment I run into a place where the grandmother is cooking.  If I like the food somewhere, I take recommendations from the chef.  If I connect with a good concierge or tour guide, I do the same. You have to be careful with that because sometimes they recommend places that pay them or give them perks.  I have found myself in some tourist traps.

 I get a lot of info at home about the cultural events in a city. There is always something I miss and  when I get there that becomes a priority. ( Diana Vishneva  is dancing at the Maryinsky Theatre in St Petersburg; an International Music Festival  is in Dubrovnik,  a morning market in Vienna,  No Sex Thai Massage in Bangkok,)

 I use the business center when I need a computer  and meet  kids from different  countries playing  computer games. They always show me how to use the computer there even if I don’t speak their language. .  (The kids from Kazakhstan did not think  that  Borat  was funny . The French kids   cursed nonstop in English . They said that was the only English they knew  – Merde)

My notes are with a pen or pencil (preferably taken  from a hotel or my friend Cindra) and one of those moleskin notebooks.  There is something about taking out a pen and notebook in a village somewhere, that makes me feel more like Hemingway  and less like Carrie Bradshaw.   But I don’t always have it with me, so at the end of  a trip I have a collection of bits of paper, envelopes, napkins, business cards, pieces of place mats , menus and hotel stationary.  Not the most organized data, but definitely the most colorful.

It is from this  collage of notes that I will  be telling you my  stories.

Does anyone  still have my Russia and the Baltics info?  Mine is missing.

                                                                                                              Fly safe,

JAZ

Things I Learned In……..(fill in country)

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I havent been everywhere but its on my list.”

For the last several years , I have traveled  alot.  Probably to make up for the last twenty years that I have not traveled at all.  Sometimes I travel with friends and family and sometimes I travel alone. I dont know when I became this person who could travel alone. but Ive learned how to enjoy it and make friends along the way(mostly virtual friends when I return)
I usually write  about the things Ive learned to my friends and family. People have been telling me for a while to be a travel writer, so I thought Id start out here.  Ill go anywhere that I havent been.  I always have anxiety before I go on a trip alone. Sometimes when I get to a place, I wonder what possessed me to pick this. This is the strangest place I have ever been.  But the next day, it doesnt feel so strange anymore.
I can eat anything raw.  I can go to the bathroom standing up. I am fluent in hand motions and can speak Spanish  in the present tense only..  Though directionally challenged, I can find my way  in any airport  to the gate and the luggage terminal. I must be an airport savant.  I can cram more things into a suitcase than it is supposed to hold.  If I have a few drinks, I forget that I cant speak the language of the country i am in.  I still carry travelers checks for an emergency thought no one will cash them anymore.  I make sure to learn how to say coffee with milk and no sugar  in every language.  I have accidently used tap water to brush my teeth in countries that you shouldnt and I am still here to write this. I have been to the gynecologist in Greece,  the dentist in the Kyushu Islands in Japan and the emergency room in Edinburgh twice ( that trip was with my kids).  Heels are my walking shoe of choice. (though I always have the appropriate shoes with me in case I need them)  Ive perfected speed shopping and no matter how many bracelets i buy as gifts, it is never enough. Im afraid on small planes.  I always have another trip planned (even if it is just in my head) before I return from the one I am on.   Those are my credentials.
                                                                                                                     Fly Safe,
                                                                                                                        JAZ