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Travel
the World... |
Independent advice for |
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traveling the world |
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Photo by Bonnie Yoon
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Red Eye
By Jeff Booth
Everywhere I go people are talking about leaving. But I don’t take it personally. Whether it’s their first trip abroad or their thirtieth, their conversation is the same—full of hope, plans bound to be changed last minute, and eagerly swapped insider tips.
Last night at a wine bar in Venice Beach, editor-at-large Matt Gross and I were eating tapas and downing old-world reds when it seemed like we were surrounded on all sides. Turned out that the girl next to us lived in a village outside Pisa, Italy, for a few years. We swapped stories about indulgent meals of ravioli and prosciutto, then compared notes on New Year’s Eve parties in Southeast Asia (where she’d stopped on an around-the-world ticket).
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Behind me, another girl talked to friends about about her trip—I caught snippets about Egypt, children, street stalls, and pyramids. Finally, Chris, our bartender, paused while wiping down glasses and told us of his imminent plans to move to Costa Rica and do nothing but soak up the jungle and the culture.
Maybe I’m living in a bubble, unconsciously surrounding myself with travel junkies, but I don’t think so. When Esmerelda, the security guard at our offices, tells me how much she’d like to go to Spain, it’s not because she thinks I’m going to send her on assignment. It’s because she, like everyone I seem to bump into, wants to—or even more encouragingly, already has—gone abroad to be amazed at architecture, eat wildly delicious street food, and make hilarious linguistic faux pas.
Seems like the oft-quoted and damning statistics that only 3% or 10% or 20% of Americans own passports (never seen any statistical proof or consistency) might be played out. If there’s ever a time I’d recommend following the in-crowd, this is it. Join the rest of us and start swapping travel stories and getting international stamps. Speaking of which, my ten-year old, dog-eared, purple- and red-ink-stained passport is up for renewal.
See you in line at the airport,
Jeff
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