LLWorldTour

In travel writing circles many talk about how to feel more ‘local.’   I once wrote about how much I liked going for a run in a foreign city.   It always made me feel like I wasn’t a tourist – running through the streets of Valencia or Melbourne or Minneapolis (at least at this pace it appeared as if I knew where I was going), finding a park, and often running alongside locals on their daily run. It was good for my spirit and body and also a great way to see some parts of a city that I may have missed – excercise and sightseeing all rolled into one feel-good package.

The only problem was I would feel the need to intensely study my map before leaving my hotel.  I definitely didn’t want to carry it with me, but I certainly didn’t want to get lost in some foreign city that I had little to no geographical knowledge of with nothing but my iPod and a room key. On the other hand, I have to admit,  I did like this challenge and the independence it made me feel. Plus, the slight fear of getting completely lost probably invigorated me and gave me that extra energy I needed to run just a bit more or a bit faster.  Who needs Red Bull when you have natural fear and anxiety to keep you going?

Well, now there is a website, that takes the fear out of running in a new place…or even your own hometown.  WalkJogRun.net helps you plan running routes by drawing them out on a map for you.   It’s sort of a Google Map mash-up including route markers, a distance/speed calculator, and even a calorie burn estimator so you can specifically run off that morning chocolate croissant in Paris, last night’s extra few glasses of Kölsch in Cologne, or that midnight Kogi taco in Los Angeles.

Not only can you plan your own route, you can ‘borrow’ other’s routes as well.   And for those of you with an iPhone…of course there is an app so you can basically bring the ‘map’ along with you after all.

I was recently nominated by the Trip Base Travel Blog to possibly be a part of their E-book on best kept travel secrets.

They are compiling this amazing list from travelers near and far of great travel tips, lesser known destinations, and hidden gem restaurants or hotels. Of course, as with any list like this, any ‘gem’ will no longer be so secret. But, alas, that is the way of today’s information age, I suppose.

So here goes. Here are three of my best kept travel secrets…soon to be not so secret anymore. You can also see more of my own tips here and soon here on my ‘Ever-Expanding Tips’ page.

1. Destination: Bozcaada Island, Turkey (pronounced: bose-jah-dah)

This tiny island off the west coast of Turkey is one of only two inhabited Turkish islands in the Aegean amidst a sea of Greek Isles. It is a dry, yellow-hued scrubby little island with picturesque wine vineyards blanketing its sunny slopes. It has a charming cobblestoned main village that is filled with mostly locals and thankfully really isn’t a big stop on the tourist trail. The main industries are fishing, tourism, and wine production. The population is mostly Turkish but there are still about 30 ethnic Greeks living here.

It’s a great escape from Istanbul and just ‘off the beaten path’ enough to be an island of mostly vacationing locals and not the hordes of tourists going to the other islands in the Aegean Sea. Gorgeous blue waters, tasty local fare & wine, and lots of sun. Ah, the simple life.

2. Travel Tip: Most Credit Cards (including highly publicized ‘travel’ card, American Express) charge you a fee if you charge something in a different currency. I use Capitol One which (at the time of this writing) does NOT charge a fee or percentage. What’s in your wallet?!

3. Great, off-the-beaten-path Hotel: Inn-Berlin

This small hotel in hip Berlin is shiny, bright, modern, and spotless, and its owners, Ralph and Yvonne, are extremely friendly and helpful.

The rooms are bright and clean, and all have fluffy down comforters encased in colorful duvets. The style is Ikea-minimal with clean lines. Rooms have cool and whimsical murals on their walls, and most importantly, they all come with their very own good-luck gnomes!

The Inn-Berlin is located a bit north of central Berlin, but the trip to most of the city’s main districts can be made in just fifteen minutes on either the U-Bahn or S-Bahn.

**As requested my Trip Base…I now tag and nominate these five bloggers to share their best travel secrets on their blogs: 360 in 356, Lives of Wander, Killing Batteries, Ms Traveling Pants, Travel Betty.

One of the biggest things I learned on my ‘world tour’:  the more you travel, the more places you want to go.   So many have said to me, ‘wow, you’ve been just about everywhere now, huh?’   Far from it actually.   Yes, I traveled around the world for 2 1/2 years.   Yes, prior to that I’d traveled abroad for about 10 years during my vacation days from work. And yes, I’ve lived in various parts of the US and have friends and family sprinkled all over so I’ve been lucky enough to see a good bit of this country.   BUT, there is still so much more I want to see during my time on this earth. My goals in traveling were never to pack in as many places as possible, but to try and get to know the people and culture of each locale.   That is why I stopped and put down my bag for a few months in places like Istanbul, Spain, Melbourne, and London.  So back to the aforementioned question:  Where next?
Here is a list of just some of the places topping my never-ending travel list:

1. Alaska
2. Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Botswana, S. Africa)
3. China
4. Vancouver
5. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan
6. Ukraine
7. Slovenia
8. Bolivia
9. Portugal
10. Norway

The boundaries around the world seem to be slowly breaking down. Where would you go if you could?

Where else should I go? Got any ideas? Have you been to these places or are you going…and can I tag along?

What did we ever do before the internet? Well, the same thing we did without VCRs (and now DVRs), mobile phones, and microwaves. We went to the library and looked things up in the encyclopedia and we watched less TV and we called people when we got home. We lived like normal and we were just fine.

And before I had this blog, I still traveled.  Up to now I have been to about 43 of the US States and about 45 countries.  I have decided to post some of these trips here so I can basically have a more complete list of my travels all in one place…and also so people can stop asking why I haven’t gone to Greece or Japan, when in fact I have, it was just B.B. (before blog).

• My First Trip Abroad

In 1996, I met my college friend Katie in Europe for my very first trip abroad.  For 3 weeks, we backpacked from Paris to Rome, Florence, Venice, and Pompeii, to Zermatt and Lucerne in  Switzerland and finished in London. It was quite a whirlwind. I was amazed, awed, scared, anxious, shocked, and simply delighted.  I remember our very first night we had already befriended another traveler (a solo girl from San Diego) and drank a bottle of wine literally on a Parisian rooftop (we climbed out our tiny hotel room window).  It was amazing and exciting and yet I remember feeling scared and homesick. What was I doing? Why was I here? It’s hard to believe now as I look back how far I have come and  all the traveling I have done since that first night when I felt so very far away.

I was definitely out of my comfort zone and not exactly sure what I was in for. But, just like now, I realized I just needed a day to acclimate and then, boom! I fell in love. The streets of Paris amazed me. The history everywhere you looked; the luscious architecture; the cafe life; the fresh breads and pastries. My first European train ride through the French countryside literally reminded me of  “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron.” The animated countryside of rolling green hills dotted with stone farmhouses and cypress trees was right here before me in real life. I couldn’t get over the buildings of ancient Rome – narrow lanes of old buildings and shops, then BAM, you turn a corner and your jaw drops as the huge Pantheon reveals itself. Or you come face-to-face with the Colosseum still standing after nearly 2000 years. It is still mind-boggling to me to this day. I remember seeing Mt. Vesuvius and the ancient city of Pompeii. It was amazing and a much bigger town than I even imagined; shops, homes, and people wiped out in an instant.

Switzerland dazzled me with its perfectly quaint alpine homes decked with flower boxes bursting with hardy, chromatic petunias. I was in love with its efficiency, cleanliness, and perfection – a stark contrast to Italy’s craziness, bustle, and messy passion. I liked a little of both and figured my dream home would be somewhere near Lake Como and the alps of northern Italy, not far from the Switzerland border…the best of both worlds.

London was our final stop and, at the time, the least interesting. Perhaps it was because I was exhausted. Perhaps it was because everyone spoke English and it was like being back home. About ten years later I would be back in London for a month and would come to love it much more and get to know its great neighborhoods and fun, charming people.

After my trip, I made a new life goal – to go abroad somewhere every year during my vacation time.  And I did just that.

• 1998 – Return to Italy with Joe (Siena, Rome, Sorrento/Amalfi Coast)
• 1999 – Germany & France with Susan (Heidelberg, Rothenberg, Munich, Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Strasbourg, Paris)
• 2000 – Ireland with David & Shannon
• 2001 – Europe Trip with Mark – 3 weeks and my first time traveling alone for just half the time  (Barcelona, Nice, Cinque Terre, Lake Como, Bolzano, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Prague)
• 2002 – Canada Road Trip with Andy (Toronto, Niagara Falls, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec)
• 2003 – Greece with Andy (Athens, Santorini, Mykonos)
• 2004 – Croatia with Andy & his mom (Zagreb, Split, Brac, Dubrovnik, quick wrong turn into Bosnia)
• 2004 – Cayman Islands with Andy and ABC7 Crew
• 2004 – Mexico for work with ABC7 Crew
• 2005 – Tokyo, Japan with Mark
• 2006 – Montreal, Canada for work with ABC7 Crew
• 2006 – World Tour!

I handed over my stamp-laden passport, the immigration officer stamped it without much more than a precursory glance, looked up at me and said, “Welcome home.”

That’s it?? I’d been out of the country for fifteen months, been to about 35 countries and that’s all I got? No red, flashing lights went off on his computer. No hour-long interrogations?

I made my way to the train and into the heart of Manhattan. I was in a bit of a daze and overwhelmed. Lights flashed, diverse masses scurried about in a semi-orderly fashion on the sidewalk, and noise was all around me, noise I couldn’t drown out, because I understood it all – the noise of English being spoken. I was home.

We often hear about the post partum depression for women who’ve just given birth, well what if you’ve give birth to this huge trip and turned your world upside down by seeing the world?

You go off seeking adventure and that’s just what you get. Your daily life involves hiking mountains, trying new foods, being challenged to be understood in a world of foreign languages and turning strangers into friends. It can be tiring, but consistently rewarding. It’s a natural high thanks to the constant newness that completely contrasts the routine drudgery of what constitutes a ‘normal life’ in today’s society.

Life is also totally under your control. You want to hang out in Berlin for a few more weeks, you certainly can. There is no idiotic co-worker driving you crazy. There are no annoying bills in your mailbox. Everyday you wake up to a new adventure and can do whatever you want.

So what happens when you return? How do you downshift back to reality? Or do you downshift at all?

They say the hardest part is returning – it’s the biggest culture shock of all – coming back home to this other reality, to boredom, to being on auto-pilot just coasting through life, to constant marketing and materialism.  Don’t get me wrong, I have things and like some things, but even before traveling I never got caught up in this blitz. And, now more than ever, I see how much we are bombarded with advertising and how wasteful we are as a society in general. We buy and throw away without a second thought. From paper towels to computers…we consume and throw away, fill up our landfills, rinse and repeat.

I have felt all these aspects of the reverse culture shock – perhaps not all at once because I tried to ‘stay away’ or kept ‘going away’ even when I returned. In fact I am still living out of a bag, what’s left of my belongings are still in storage, and I have not completely settled down yet. Perhaps this is my way of slowly coming back to reality or never really coming back to the same reality ever again.  And I am just fine with that. Life is too short to do the same thing and then die.  No thanks.

So what do you do to help PTD?

Things to avoid:

1. Getting sucked in to watching too much TV.  For about 3 years I barely watched TV at all let alone even had it in the room or hotel I was staying in. It can be enjoyable at times and a distraction from other life issues, but there are so many better things we can be doing.
2. Feeling the ‘need’ to follow too much media about senseless issues (ie Jon & Kate? Who are these people and why do I care?). Being aware of world events and news is good; surmising if Jennifer and Brad will ever get back together is ridiculous.
3. Eating too much – We eat so much more in this country than we need to AND so much of that is barely real food. Strive to continue to eat as fresh as you were when traveling.
4. I went for years without a cell phone. I still sometimes forget mine at home now and ONLY have a prepaid phone – no bill, no contracts, just pay-as-you-go and I like it. I don’t NEED to chat endlessly on the phone just because everyone around me is. I still prefer face to face meetings something that was impressed upon me from my time in Istanbul.
5. Try to not jump right back in the rat race. If you can, spend time with family and friends, travel around your home state and country and see it all in a whole new light.

Things to do:

1. Stay in touch with new friends from travels. With email and Facebook this is so easy and fun.
2. Keep the ‘learning’ going…if you loved salsa dancing in Latin America – find a salsa class at home. Miss the tasty spring rolls in Vietnam? Seek out a cooking class. If you miss the challenge of chatting with locals in another language…take a language class. I just received Rosetta Stone’s French Lessons in the mail. Go to museums, check local magazines and newspapers for other cultural meeting and groups.
3. Meet new friends back home. In larger cities there are expat groups or other travel groups (meetup.com and Couchsurfing.com) that give you the opportunity to  get together for a drink or coffee with like-minded people.
4. Couchsurfing – Sign up to be a host. You can meet and show others from abroad around your town. Return the favor for the hospitality you received while traveling.
5. Volunteer with travelers/tourists: Contact your local tourism department to see what’s going on. Free services like Chicago Greeter and Big Apple Greeter are always looking for volunteers to give visitors a taste of your city from a local’s perspective.
6. Volunteer at your local Youth Hostel to meet travelers from all over the world and live vicariously through them.
7. Let yourself feel sad or different.  What you just did and saw was BIG…don’t try to ‘get over it.’
8. Reminisce – look at your photos, think about your trip, share stories with those who really are interested.
9. Share – You’ve learned so much while traveling. Hold on to this. Share it with others. Maybe your experiences will teach and/or inspire others, maybe not to travel, but just to be more aware of the world around them.
10. FINAL POINT: start planning your next trip! Just because the BIG one is over (for now), that doesn’t mean the traveling is over. Keep traveling when and where you can! There’s a big world out there to see. Get going.

After traveling around the world for 2 ½ years, I realized there is just no way to encapsulate the trip into a ten minute conversation with friends. How do you do that? Should I talk about the Great Pyramids of Giza or celebrating Christmases in London and Sydney and Milan or riding on a camel or hiking up a volcano? What about all the places I slept, all the different modes of transport I took, or all the new friends I made? How can I relay all this in a soundbite? Should I edit a movie montage? All I can come up with is ‘it was amazing’ or sometimes I find it’s better to not even try at all.

But what did I learn? I had all that supposed ‘free’ time to just think, philosophize, and simply ponder life, right? Well, the first thing I learned is that we seem to eventually adjust ourselves into whatever situation we are in. Kind of like when you have a project to do – it always seems to take as long as you are given. If you have two weeks or two days to complete it, it seems human nature that you stretch it out into whatever time frame given. So on the trip, I finally ‘thought’ I would have all this time to think, but often times I just found myself in the moment – enjoying a sunset or tasty meal or the company of good friends. What I learned was just that – how to live. How not to think about the past or worry about the future, but to simply…be.   So rather than pulling myself out of lovely moments, I enjoyed them, I marinated in them, I lived them. I let myself just be – and enjoy every part of my journey that still continues today.

So, how was my trip? Well, it was amazing and it was and is my life…forever changed.

A Journey – Yes, this a Louis Vutton commercial – a name brand barely in my vocabulary let alone my closet, but it’s very well done and their message is true. And not at all about fancy bling and $1000 purses. Take a look and enjoy your journey.

Does anyone dispute that walking is good for you? It’s good for the heart. It’s easy on the joints. It helps clear the mind. And it gets you out into a new or old neighborhood allowing you to soak in the sights, sounds, and smells around you that you would most likely miss from a car.  While traveling, we often walk more than when we are at home. It’s a great way to really ’see’ a new city. But I often like to walk as much as I can at home too. Sometimes cities are thought of as dirty, polluted population centers. But, for the most part, this is simply not the case anymore. Many urban areas across the United States have revitalized and poured lots of funds into their downtown centers – greening, beautifying, and turning old, now defunct warehouse spaces (i.e. Chicago’s West Loop Market District) and even rail lines (i.e. Manhattan’s former High Line elevated train tracks) into new work and living spaces and parks.

Here are some great reasons to get out there and hit the pavement according to walkscore.com, a nifty site started by some Seattle (walk score of 72) software developers.

Why Walking Matters:

• Better health: A study in Washington State found that the average resident of a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood weighs 7 pounds less than someone who lives in a sprawling neighborhood.  Residents of walkable neighborhoods drive less and suffer fewer car accidents, a leading cause of death between the ages of 15-45.
• Reduction in greenhouse gas: Cars are a leading cause of global warming. Your feet are zero-pollution transportation machines.
• More transportation options: Compact neighborhoods tend to have higher population density, which leads to more public transportation options and bicycle infrastructure. Not only is taking the bus cheaper than driving, but riding a bus is ten times safer than driving a car!
• Increased social capital: Walking increases social capital by promoting face-to-face interaction with your neighbors. Studies have shown that for every 10 minutes a person spends in a daily car commute, time spent in community activities falls by 10%.
• Stronger local businesses: Dense, walkable neighborhoods provide local businesses with the foot traffic they need to thrive. It’s easier for pedestrians to shop at many stores on one trip, since they don’t need to drive between destinations.

Walkscore.com ranks addresses and gives them a walk score from 0-100. This is something realtors are starting to use in the sale and marketability of homes and neighborhoods.

Pedestrian-friendly cities and towns can make huge personal economic sense. If you don’t need a car, you can save thousands a year on financing, leasing, insurance, maintenance, gas and parking fees — especially if you own more than one vehicle.

Living where there’s ubiquitous and reliable public transportation and services within a mile or less also means fewer worries about traffic jams, accidents, wasted money and time. And walking is good for you, so you could improve your health and lose weight.

The nation’s top 5 most walkable cities? San Francisco, New York, Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia. My address in Chicago literally got a walk score of 100%. The score takes into account the restaurants, supermarkets, parks, schools, the lake, movie theaters, bookstores, and coffee shops, all of which are within comfortable walking distance.

My current address in the ‘burbs of New Jersey earned a meager walk score of 34%. It’s a lovely green town, but very spread out and you’d be hard pressed to get around without a car.

The logic seems obvious: You can lose weight each time you walk to the grocery store. You can go out with friends, have a glass of wine and not worry about driving. You spend less money on your car, car insurance, and gasoline—or you don’t own a car at all. When you shop, you support your local economy. You talk to your neighbors. You build a life and a community. Sounds nice, no?

By now, if you are a traveler yourself, or have been reading along with LL World Tour, you may make a distinction between a tourist and a traveler. In a nutshell, the general thinking is that a tourist jets into a new city, runs around in sneakers and a loud t-shirt seeing the most popular sights, shoves some local pizza/gelato/schnitzel into their face, and collapses into their chain hotel bed exhausted. A traveler sits at a café, chats up some locals, goes to a more ‘real’ part of town where people are really living and working, and enjoys a home cooked meal in someone’s home that evening with wine and fun conversation. Now, of course, circumstances…um, like a job…sometimes make it difficult for many of us to become more than just tourists. With our limited vacation time it is often difficult to really immerse ourselves into a new place and culture. Hence the reason I quit my ‘day job’ to travel the world.

This is a much bantered about topic. We are all tourists at some point. I know I have certainly been one. I am also a traveler. There is no exact definition and the line blurs between the two. It is all subjective, of course, and isn’t the whole point of travel to dispel the stereotypes and labels? But, what makes one a traveler? Here is a little list of oft-used words when describing these vagabonding ne’er do wells:

1.  Flexible

You meet so many strangers and mix with so many cultures. Different languages are reaching your ears and sound like music. New people. New transport. New currency. It all changes all the time and you just go with the flow. You misread the train schedule and miss your train? No worries. You are not really on a schedule…so why sweat it? You shrug it off and go grab a beer.  The more things change, the more flexible you become.

2.  Resilient

You’re on the go. You are there to see and do. Like the United States Postal Service: Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night…will stop you. If it’s raining you throw on your hooded rain jacket. If it’s cold you pile on the fleecy layers. If it’s hot, you strip down to the barest threads. Less seems to bother you because you’ve walked through it all – and usually all the while schlepping 30 pounds on your back.

3.  Courageous

Just the fact that you are out in the world in the first place means you must have the balls to do it. The more you travel, the less scary the big, bad world seems. You’re often told that you’ve got moxie and chutzpah. After conquering the world…nothing really scares you.

4.  Open-Minded

You embrace others’ differences. You understand that different does not mean wrong. In fact, it may be better. You are excited to speak new languages, learn about new cultures and taste new foods. Different doesn’t scare you, it turns you on.

5.  Adventurous

You are on a roller coaster ride of adrenaline. You’re constantly being stimulated by meeting new folks and trying new things. The rush is ongoing and nearly constant. You start to crave adventure and push your own limits further and further. No wonder some say it’s an addiction.

6.  Crazy

You have just the right amount of crazy inside of you to do this and make it happen. You are squirrely enough to not just dream of being a traveler, but to actually get out there and become one.

Travelers break the mold of ‘normal.’ They get out there. They do it. They break away from the pack and veer off the path we are all preprogrammed to follow.  They climb out of their comfort zone and dip their toes in strange yet alluring waters…until finally they dive in. Come on in, the water’s fine.

There is no way I could just be a tourist in the world for 2 ½ years.  I knew I had to mix it up to prevent boredom and burnout. I craved variety in my everyday life, so why would my life on the road be any different? Yes, of course, the constant change of scenery, culture, and people was variety in and of itself, but I knew I couldn’t just keep showing up in a new town each week and essentially continue to ‘walk around the world for a year.’  I needed to do, ya know, stuff. I needed to immerse myself somehow in society and feel like a part of it.  To start this process, I did different things like a Spanish Immersion program in Costa Rica (Spanish lessons in the morning and yes, surfing lessons in the afternoon) or a two-week, several-hundred mile bicycle trip down the length of Vietnam. But I needed even more structure. I needed…a job (cue shrieking horror music).

Now, just the sheer fact that I decided to blog about my trip and also write travel articles to be published elsewhere means that I was already working. I was trying to make time each week to sit and just write – a very hard thing to do when you are sitting in Rome or Cairo or Hong Kong and there are so many things around you vying for your attention.

Besides my new ‘day job’ as travel writer and photographer, I landed a few other actual jobs around the world.

1. Barrista and sandwich maker at a café in Melbourne
2. TV producer and reporter in Chile
3. Private business English tutor in Istanbul
4. Media proofreader in Istanbul
5. Actress in American Feature film in Istanbul
6. Research Assistant at the University of Cologne helping conduct an International survey on Airline/Airport Relationships
7. Writer and proofreader at publishing company in Berlin
8. Publicist for English Immersion company in Madrid
9. Extra in Hollywood
10. Pet Sitter around the world (Istanbul, LA, Chicago)

But many have asked me how did I find all these jobs? Did I look before I went on my trip?  The simple answer is no.  I simply arrived in a new place with the random idea that I could maybe find work there. In Australia, I spoke the language (sort of), so it seemed like a natural place to find a job other than teaching English. In Turkey, it’s all about connections and once I met one person…the ball just started rolling.  Besides that, I used persistence, word-of-mouth, and friends’ connections and a lot of smiles.

So, on this adventure, I worked all over and found it to be another great way to “go local.”  I lived in one place for an extended amount of time. I had a place to live. I took public transport (or a bicycle in Melbourne) to work. I had a schedule. I had a paycheck (well, cash). I truly felt like part of the fabric of society. And I actually gained some new skills, but most importantly I made real friends.

To hear more about my working around the world, listen to this podcast interview I did for Chris Christensen at the Amateur Traveler.

Amateur Traveler Episode 194 – Work and Travel Around the World

It seems in our modern times we spend so much time face down in our blackberry world texting and shuffling through life. Now with all our i-gadgets we never miss a call, but seem to miss more of real life passing us by and certainly have less interaction with people and the world around us.

Juan Mann of Australia has started a revolution to buck this trend. How? By hugging it out.  That’s right, free hugs to anyone who wants or needs one.

Who doesn’t love a good hug? I don’t know about you, but for me, there’s nothing out there for sale at the stores that compares to a good old fashioned squeeze around the mid section.  Now, folks in places like Taipei, Tel Aviv, Italy, Ireland, Toronto, and Colorado are continuing his campaign by offering free hugs to strangers in public places. Check out his site and story here and then go hug someone you love…or if you are feeling really ‘huggy bear-like,’ go hug a stranger. Now get to huggin’.

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