Traveling Alone. Liberating Or Terrifying ?
Traveling Alone. Have you ever done it? Have you ever thought about doing it? Does the thought of it confuse you? Do you quickly judge or quietly admire people who do? Does it sound terrifying or liberating? Are you afraid to go to the supermarket in your home town alone?
I am not going to wax poetic about the joys of solo travel only because I have no idea what waxing poetic is. I am not going to give you long rambling stories of adventures and found hidden gems. You can search a myriad of blogs, Instagrams, FB posts and the grand daddy of insanity the Twitter Feeds and ## for tips, tricks, advice and stories good and bad about traveling solo. There is Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, Frommers, Pilot Guides, Fodors and a host of other websites. There are Adventure Travel companies out the ying yang any of which I have used have always been amazing. There are Travel TV shows and great documentaries to learn from. I am not going to tell you how to eat your sandwich. What you need to do is find your own personal inspiration.
For me traveling solo makes me challenge myself. It puts me into situations that have been both good and bad and thus I have to be responsible for them. Robbed in Boliva? Well sir you better start with the Police Report in that scary police station in La Paz. Lost in El Salvador? Walk over to that old man and his cow and ask for help. Always keeping in mind what Carl Hoffman, author of The Lunatic Express said. "Just because they are poor does not make them all thieves" (A great travel read) . Feeling a bit lonely? Start a conversation with someone, anyone. Want to be introspective? Climb a volcano or mountain glacier, that will give you perspective. Maybe I am waxing a little poetic. Well wax on, wax off.
As I finish the Epic Read that has been Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon I came across a couple of nice quotes from the book. For no particular reason other than they mean something to me and I will share them
"Boredom lies only with the travelers limited perceptions and his failure to explore deeply enough."
-- William Least Heat Moon
Little is so satisfying to the traveler as realizing he missed seeing what he assumed to be in a place before he went"
-- William Least Heat Moon
Why am I all over the place with this post. Well sir, I am going to tell you. We went to see the newest James Bond Movie, Spectre. I think we all agreed that it was a solid piece of garbage! What a rambling, bumbling horrific addition to the Bond series. It was all over the place and now my mind is all over the place. Sam Mendez, with your track record as a Director I had hope but you blew the pooch on this one. For shit sake, they drilled into his brain stem not once but twice with no serious side effects or blood for that matter. Then he ends up with his old friends daughter! I mean I am all for the elimination of ageism but it was his friends daughter! That even makes me cringe. Even Sylvester Stallone in the Expendables series has tasteful flirting comments with the young woman in those movies but he steps away from them at the end. They do not walk away hand in hand.. Well that and Rocky does look like an old pug dog although I am pretty sure that wrinkled, cosmetically altered old bastard could take me apart pretty damn quickly.
I am going to have to watch Skyfall tomorrow just to get my Bond equilibrium back. Where is Jason Bourne when you need him? How about Katniss Everdeen? The good news is going to the movies here is about $3 and I load up on a gorge able amount of popcorn. When the lights came on you bet your sweet ass it was all over my shirt, shorts and seat.
Oh yeah, traveling alone. Traveling period.
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