Surprises


In the Nov/Dec 2006 edition of National Geographic Traveler‘s “Real Travel” column entitled, “Surprise Gifts,” contributing editor Daisann McLane writes about a realization that many seasoned travelers have come to know:  that some of the best travel experiences happen when something doesn’t go according to plan, ultimately leading you to sometimes happy, but definitely memorable situations.  She writes:

“Travel happiness is that instant in time when everything you didn’t plan seems to fall together in a perfect moment: people, atmosphere, history, scenery—and strong coffee… Because a stopover is usually a last-minute decision, something done on a whim, or perhaps even forced on you by delays or carrier schedules, the odds are strong that it will end up being on of these unexpected traveler’s highs.”

For example, in my own travels, I hadn’t planned on getting mugged at knifepoint in Cape Town (boy, I didn’t see that coming!), but that unexpected moment led me to missed flights, which led me to an unexpected overland detour through Zambia, where I made ex-pat friends who led me to more friends in Tanzania—one of which took me to dinner and recognized me as her neighbor from our old hood in Jersey City, NJ.  On a post-college trip backpacking trip around Europe, an unexpected stop through Basel, Switzerland led me to a great time at world class zoo and a cute little market with delicious sausages.  In Mali, on an extended layover in Mopti en route to Timbuktu, I bumped into a British woman who eventually rang my doorbell in New York the week I returned—only to invite me to a fancy house party at the British deputy consul general’s flat in NYC.  Surprise gifts, as McLane puts it.

But I digress.  The point is, overplanning a trip too tightly is not necessarily a good thing; you set up expectations of yourself that may not necessarily be met—and anything can happen on the road to alter it:  the people you meet, the people you don’t meet, the things that you do, the things that happen to you.  Perhaps travel can be a microcosm of Life itself; people make plans and set expectations of themselves—what they’ll be when they grow up, what type of person they’ll marry (if they do at all), where they’ll live, etc.  But as we all know, reality is never so cookie-cut—as the saying goes, “Life is what happens in between the things that you planned on.” I don’t know where or when I first heard that, but it’s been one of the mottoes I’ve forever kept in my psyche—that, together with the immortal words of Indiana Jones, “I don’t know, I’m making this up as I go.” I’ve learned it’s best not to overplan your life; there should be room for the inevitable and unexpected twists—it’s natural to evolve and adapt to new environments, experiences and people.

IF YOU’VE READ IN BETWEEN the lines of the “Twisted” blog, you may or may not have figured out that I currently have a Blogreader/girlfriend named Steph, who is worth bringing up again now since I’ll be with her on the surprise trip I mentioned in a comment at the end of the last blog entry: a relaxing and romantic jaunt through Europe for two and a half weeks.  Relaxation and romance in Europe, yes—another departure from my usual gung-ho style of independent travel, this one on the exact opposite side of the spectrum of tornado chasing, with its long, 13-hour days of sitting in a van.  The thought of me with someone may come as a surprise to some people as I’ve been known in some circles to be the eternal and sometimes preachy poster boy of singlehood, but all I can say is hey, Life is what happens in between the things that you planned on—or in my case, in between travel blogs.

I met Steph at the youthful, high-school-esque interactive ad agency I work at in New York City, where, as I’ve stated before, we drink beer and forward YouTube links to each other all day.  With many friends in common, Stephanie and I had known about each other for months but didn’t really hit it off until we were put on the same project together for an undisclosed electronics corporation.  It was a gradual affair: working closely together on the project led to after work drinks, which led to doing duets at company karaoke parties, which ultimately led to being on nighttime conference calls with our client in Korea, pushing the mute button so we could make out without them hearing.  Eventually one thing led to another and we saw each other more and more, and before I knew it, we had gone all the way… and by that, I mean we actually met Gary Coleman.  (It was Steph who had taken the picture of me and Gary [and my friend Moe] before).

Of course, we have our things in common outside of work; travel and adventure are no strangers to Stephanie.  “You’re the only person in my age range that has been almost everywhere I’ve been,” she once told me early on when she realized what I did outside the office.  With extensive travels through Asia, a study abroad in India, numerous trips to Europe—even living in Paris for nine months—and multiple safaris in Africa, Steph is definitely a match to my global tripping self.  Moreover, her hobbies and experiences over the years have made her even more endearing to me—this cycling, bowling, rock climbing, scuba diving, road tripping, Guitar Hero-playing, motorbike riding, breakfast cereal eating, karaoke singing, kickball playing, VH-1 reality show watching, roller coaster riding, story editing, salmon sushi loving, competitive skiing girl from Michigan is definitely the “surprise gift” of the year to me.

“If there was ever any girl I could see you with, it’s her,” my longtime friend Cheryl once told me.

Despite all the participial adjectives I used to describe her, Steph also retains her feminine side; she is not without her girlish idiosyncrasies:  obsessions with Chinese dumplings, puppies, and of course, the most womanly of obsessions, shoes.  To top it all off, she’s extremely bright, pretty, funny, witty, sarcastic, spontaneous and spunky (picture above)—it’s no wonder her personality has been compared to Natalie Portman in the movie Garden State.

IT WAS NOT THE GARDEN STATE of New Jersey but the Lake State of Michigan where I last saw Steph; after storm chasing for a week and a long weekend in Chicago, the last few unblogged days of my tour of the American midwest were spent in her home state where I visited longtime Blogreader and friend Michelle [in Michigan], went on a road trip to Kalamazoo (since I’ve already been to Timbuktu), and most significantly, accompanied Steph on a visit to her family so that I could meet them.  I was happy to have fit in with her circles, but mostly I was impressed to be welcomed by the toughest critic of them all: her dog Elwood, a discerning Portuguese water dog that won’t even warm up to some friends and family who have been in Steph’s life for years.

Michigan was fun—except for the times Elwood accidentally pounced on my balls in bed—but soon I was dropped off at Detroit County Airport for my flight back to New York.  Steph and I sat on the floor outside the security gate, kissing and hugging our goodbyes—or rather, our see-you-laters.

“A couple of jetsetters like us?  We’re bound to bump into each other at some point,” I said with a smirk, knowing quite well I’d bump into her.

I flew back to New York to take care of some business, while she flew off to Tuscany for a week-long vacation with her family.  Our planned “bump in” would happen ten days later in northern Italy, where we’ll start our European holiday through parts of Italy and Croatia, and onto other destinations neither of us have been.  (Maybe then we’ll get a more authentic photo of us at an Italian fountain rather than the faux one we saw at Caesar’s in Atlantic City, NJ.) The second half of the trip is not yet set in stone, but the names “Bosnia,” “Interlochen,” and “Stonehenge” have come up, along with the verb—and possible future participial adjective—“sky diving.” We’ll also split up at some point and visit friends.  I really anticipate having a fun time with Steph—the latest character in “The Trinidad Show”—unless we end up wanting to kill each other after; as many have seen on the reality show The Amazing Race, travel can really gauge the inner workings of a relationship.

As for blogging the trip, I haven’t decided what to do yet.  I didn’t intend to do a daily blog for the tornado chasing trip, but I did anyway to kill time—a “surprise gift” to my regular readers if you will.  This time around I may or may not write a blog of the trip, but if I decide to do it, it won’t be a daily one, but rather one split up in logical parts—in fact, that’s what I’m leaning towards.  As you may or may not know, I’ve usually spent a good 3-4 hours a day to maintain my daily travel blog on the road, but in this scenario it’s a little different:  if I have the choice to spend hours blogging in front of a computer or spend some intimate quality time with my girlfriend (wink wink), I’m most likely going to choose the latter—now that’s not so surprising, is it?

In any case, stay tuned… THE TRIP BEGINS JUNE 18.


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This blog entry was originally posted on June 15, 2007 on the travel blog, "The Global Trip: Two in The Boot and Beyond." It is one part of a twelve-part blog chronicling a romantic getaway through Italy, plus jaunts to Croatia, Switzerland, and London.




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