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Travel
the World... |
Independent advice for |
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traveling the world |
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| Photo by Francesca Del Gobbo
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Red Eye
By Jeff Booth
National Geographic documentaries need to cover the annual migration to Europe each summer. Massive herds of American college students fly across the Pacific when the (academic) seasons change. Sure, some might head to Australia or Asia, but the greatest concentration of shorts, baseball hats, and backpacks are on Las Ramblas, in the alleys of Montmartre, and in the pubs of old–town Prague. What primal force of nature draws these travelers to pack themselves in trains and buses, stumble from museum to museum, and subsist solely on funky cheese and baguettes for weeks?
I actually have no idea, because that stuff's not all that fun.
But just about everything else is amazing. Including some of the better cheeses.
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Who cares if you hear more English on the Champs Elysées than in the Manhattan subway? You're there for your own adventure, and it's entirely up to you whether you want to explore on your own or adopt the herd mentality. Either way you'll see something new. I'm a proponent of breaking out of the pack, and granted, I'm usually the one the lions pull down on the savanna during the documentaries, but troubles on the road aren't usually that harsh. The important thing is that you're in Europe at all. So even if there seems like a flood of backpackers walking into the same hostel as you in every city, the fact is that so many other people never got up off the couch in the first place. Which would you rather be?
I'll decide where I want to go by the whitewater kayaking opportunities by the trekking routes and the train system and whether there's good street food. I'll even ask my travel partner where she wants to go. Mountains plus beaches plus culture is a combination that I always look for. In the end, though, I might just use the tried–and–true method of most travelers faced with an open map: close my eyes, spin around a bunch of times, tell everyone to duck, and throw a dart. Can't get better than that.
Make your choice,
Jeff
PS. Christopher Notley from Passport TEFL was a man who made the right choice: to travel, to teach English abroad, and most importantly, to inspire other students to become students and teachers of the world. His sudden passing is a loss to the global travel community, and he will be missed, but his teachers and students will continue to spread his message of global communication.
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