Ten Countries and Counting

Inhaling a döner durum...

Notare eh? Notare la cartera…

Sure, if you speak Italian and Spanish, this would make complete sense to you. I don’t speak Italian and even considering the Greek accent, I understood every last word.

I am by no means a travel expert. I have visited 10 countries so far. I’m not sure if that makes me a knowledgeable source of travel advice nor do I know if it makes me a mere novice. I’d like to think I’m somewhere in-between. That being said, here’s a brief look at what I’ve discovered through travel, so far.

·         Unless you’re going on a honeymoon, avoid resorts.

Really, and I mean that with all my heart. We honeymooned at the Halcyon in St. Lucia just outside of Castries. Amenities were amazing and it was the epitome of relaxation. They waited on you, hand and foot. The food was wonderful, the excursions were fun, and the staff was always very polite and friendly.

We were bored off our ass.

Seriously! Erika and I like adventure and the thrill of the unknown; however, any indication of that (given that it’s a tropical climate) was stolen with the minutely planned activities they had. Every last stinking excursion was planned out and you followed the herd of people with you like cattle to slaughter.  And the moment they do let you loose (which is how we made it to the Castries market) you’re in such a state of luxury that you’re in shock when you see what the people are like who live there. This brings us to lesson number two.

·         Look for the hole-in-the-walls.

It was 2004 and I was in a study abroad program in Madrid, Spain. I really REALLY loved Serrano ham, Manchengo cheese, Sangria, and Paella…but it wasn’t until I made a friend from Turkey that I was taken aside and into a building that had no sign in front of it and was no larger than a bar. This place had the most spectacular food I had had in my life at that time. I introduce to you the döner kebap and döner durum. The first one was lamb sliced from a skewer and placed in pita bread like a taco and it had tomato, parsley, yogurt and onion in it. Its larger cousin, the durum, was the same thing except in a tortilla and wrapped like an enchilada. It was absolutely heaven.  All this Turkish deliciousness would have been passed over had I not let my guard down and walked in those doors.  Wow, how did that happen? Turkish deliciousness brings us to lesson number three.

·         Let the mundane inspire you, pass it on, and watch it grow.

July 2006, my now wife, Erika, decided it was a good idea to travel through parts of Italy and teach English or Spanish.  From the comfort of home, I called and e-mailed her, daily. Wanting her to try out some of the Turkish food, I tell her to look for it. Of all places, she found it in Lago di Como on the border of Italy and Switzerland. It rocked her world too. Two years later, we get married and two years after that we turn our love of the döner kebap into a trip to Turkey. Yes, we were only in Istanbul one day, but it’s amazing to see what something as little as lamb wrapped in pita bread can inspire someone to do. Because of the kebap, we learned that Turkey is a predominately Muslim country that is secular.  We would not have gotten to see the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia, and Topkapi Palace, and don’t even get me started on the awesomeness that is authentic Turkish delights. Onward, to lesson four!

·         Be adventurous.

I’m a huge advocate of cautiously letting your guard down while visiting a foreign country. It’s all too important to do this because it breaks down your fears, and gives you a perspective on travel that most tourists do not bother with. In Costa Rica, Erika and I zip-lined through parts of the Monteverde rain forest, hiked Arenal volcano and took breath-taking pictures of the volcano slowly erupting. We waded through water to get to Manuel Antonio Park and walked its many trails and ended the day with a backpack on the side of the beach with some fruit, a coati, and monkeys. As an aside, I even proposed to Erika on this trip! Here comes lesson five.

·         Don’t make fixed plans.

Leave Friday, arrive Monday. That was our only plan to get to West Yellowstone, Montana. We had decided on a family road-trip and it required a Yukon and Escalade to get it done. It was spectacular fun and the majority of the fun was had by not creating a fixed schedule of sights to see nor hotels to stay. We drove until we got to something we thought was interesting, and stopped when we were tired. Because of this we were able to see an extinct volcano, cliff dwellings, lunch with the Rockies in the distance, and snow in June (yes, parts of Wyoming had snow in June). And finally...

·         The news is overrated.

On the bus to Palestine (Bethlehem to be exact) and Jerusalem we were nervous about what we were going to see there. The way the news portrays Middle East affairs, we felt almost like we were stepping into the wild west. The most scandalous thing that happened on that trip was that the guide from Israel had to get off the bus at the border of Palestine and a Palestinian guide got on and gave us a tour of Bethlehem and on the way out, the Israeli guide got back on and continued the tour. I would be grossly exaggerating to say that we felt unsafe in either place. We felt less safe in Omonia square in Athens, Greece than in Palestine! Don't believe everything you see. Find out on your own. Ask someone who's actually been there. You'll probably be surprised.

Although these six lessons can’t and won’t give you all the travel advice you need, it’s if nothing else, a starting point. Take any advice I give with a grain of salt, but don’t be afraid to give it a shot. If you found it helpful or not, please let me know. I would love to hear your stories.

By the way…The phrase at the beginning of this entry was said by our taxi driver as we stepped out onto the streets of Athens, Greece. He was telling us to “take note of our wallets”.  Haha…happy traveling!