I am walking out the door to take the T to Logan in about ten minutes. I won’t be blogging for the three weeks that I am gone, but I will occasionally send tweets :-D. So for those of you who are interested in the minutiae of the trip, watch the twitter updates!
“The best reason to travel is not to discover new places;
it is to discover what you would become
after being affected by your destination.”
–Juan at Global Culture
Some of you might be wondering, “What happened to Music Monday?” Well, it is going to be randomly Music Monday for a while. Right now, I’m still a little distressed by my ticket; I’ve never gotten a ticket before. Plus, I am trying to study French every night in the hope that I will have French on the tongue when I step off the plane.
However, I did want to share the above quote from a blog post by Juan called best reasons to travel at Global Culture. Juan also writes:
There is another category of travelers that are investing more than their money and time into these experiences. They are allowing for that particular experience to affect them in more ways than most people would allow. Open to the possibility that being part of another culture, even if only for a short period of time, may have a catalytic power…
A little too romantic? Perhaps. Then again, a little ardency, a little faith in our ability to be alive to the world around us, isn’t THAT the spice of life?
Who would have thought that the cheesy Rick Steves would hit the travel nail so squarely on the head! (Sorry to be snarky, but he is a bit cheesy, don’t you think?) So… today I was thinking I might follow in the footsteps of the ubiquitous guidebook guru Mr. Steves and scribble down a few lines during my trip. As I never do anything that I haven’t googled first, I went web hunting for few travel writing pointers. Within a few mouse clicks I was reading an article by Steves suggestively entitled How to Be a Travel Writer. Well, cheesy Mr. Steves delighted me with his story, which energetically expressed how his career evolved as a natural extension of his intense passion to share the experience of travel with others. Not just as a writer, but as a traveler. His unrelenting desire to teach about travel came before the writing, not the other way around. (Of course, plenty of travel writers counsel budding travel writers to put the writing first.) Unfortunately, for professional travel writers who haven’t made it like Steves, the job of travel writer sounds like a grueling way NOT to earn money. And then there is the low prestige factor. According to Susan McKee, “As a professional travel writer, I occupy a place in the journalistic hierarchy somewhere just above pond scum.” Ouch! Good thing that I am thinking about doing this for fun only. Although…I stumbled across an ezine for solo travelers,Connecting, which pays $25 upon publication of an 800 to 2,000 word article. Yeah, you read that right. $25.
: ) That’s why the best travel is on a shoestring…
(The above photo is of a coffeehouse in Cambridge, MA, not France. ; ) Looks a bit French though doesn’t it?)
Garden variety North American Nomad. Born in the Midwest; lived and worked on the West Coast and abroad; studied in the South. Recently spotted putting down roots in New England.
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