honk

Today I just got honked at while biking.....one single honk.  One.
I was crossing legally on the bike path, on a green bike crossing light and I was in the middle of the street at the time of said honk.

Looking behind me at the older gentleman driving his beat up truck with his fist in the air staring in my direction, I saw anger in his face and a little resentment...thinking something on the lines of....

"Damn bikers, they think they can just bike however they'd like!  They think they own the street as well as their beloved bike paths!  Stay off my god damn streets you good for nothing sons of $%^$!"

What does he do to express all of this deep feeling?  A SINGLE HONK!

Well this whole thing got me gruffed and riled up to shout a single profanity at....no one!
RIGHT!  Just me!  Waiting to legally cross the other intersection, patiently/peacefully waiting my turn accept for one verbal outletting of...

"What the F*** was THAT?!?"
and.... I felt better!

Thinking about this afterwards, I started laughing at the incredible midwestern passive aggressive weirdness that just occurred in comparison to so many other places....

One honk.  One F bomb....and that was enough to release the tension.  In comparison to Jakarta or Bangkok, Santiago, Buenos Aires, New York City.....I can't imagine the same 1:1 ratio of honking to profanity....just one!  It just doesn't happen!  I almost miss the continual non useful honking now....what a continual release of inner stress!  To be allowed to honk and not mean anything by at!  Yes...it's flipping annoying to everyone else...but to be the honker ....not just letting it go once, but 50!  WOW!
and then!  To be on the receiving end...where one can feel comfortable to rip open...arms flailing...words flying....screaming, ranting....letting it all go!  Well, in comparison, my one little baby f bomb at no one 20 seconds after being honked at....pathetic!

I mean...heck...he could have even been honking as a caution!  "Hello biker...I have no breaks...I'm turning right behind you...my sincerest apologies!"  Here in the midwest, this is just as likely.

I'm befuddled by it all!

Freaky Foods

Things that seem totally normal to us can be strange to other people, and other things that are normal to them are completely strange to us. Here are a few examples.

India: fried tubes

Bali: snake fruit

Spain: anchovies (not just for pizza, and PS -- they are delish!)

Spain: leg of pig complete with hoof (jamon) and liver of duck (pate de pato)

Namibia: wieners, in a can

Vietnam: several varieties of hedgehog

Vietnam: dragonfruit

South Korea: no idea what these weird shellfish are

For more strange foods, go see my other blog later this week! There were just too many for one post!

Have you ever eaten any of these? What's the strangest food you've ever eaten? Or seen?

Now I know!

I know I was supposed to "find myself" or "figure myself out" while spending time traveling.
Self awareness, self realization and all that...well...this is as far as I got:

• I'm not a beach person.  I like about 30 minutes max, if that, per day and beyond that, no thank you! 
• I hate the 30 seconds spent between getting out of the water and into my sandals when my feet get covered in beach sand....bleuk!
• I enjoy a diet rich in multiple varieties of carbs.  Rice.  Bread.  Pasta.  Cous Cous.  Interspersed.  Awesomeness!  2 months straight of only rice or only bread....I get a little wiggy.
• If everything fails, the best thing I can do is sit down and shut up....do I do this?  Nope.
• Eggs.  I really love them!  Fried sunny side up particularly.  I'll eat them any other way as well...accept raw......that was gross.  
• I would prefer to be too cold then too hot.
• I looooove eating fried chicken off the bone...num num num num num.
• I really don't have to pee (have access to a restroom) all the time!
• I'll take Fanta over a Coke.
• I'll take a beer over a bottle of water I have to pay for...especially if they're the same price!
• I really suck at languages...but I try anyways!
• I'm not a good driver...anywhere
• I would rather walk 3 miles in the heat, starving, then get ripped off by a taxi driver
• I can't stand when people try to push things on me....even if I want what they're pushing
• I really love washing dishes.

So.  What does it all mean?!?

Learning From Them

Columbia - Ciudad Perdida - Friendly guard

I get asked by a lot of people, "Why do you travel?"

Traveling can be done for many different reasons. Each person or situation warrants a different reason and results in a different experience. You may want to relax; you may want to learn about History; you may want to hike every mountain in the world; you may want to dive every coral reef. Of course, I want to do it all. 

Above all, I have always been curious about how other people live. I travel to LEARN. Whether they are in the million dollar apartments in Paris or the slums of Mumbai, I want to see it. More than that, I want to experience it. This is not to say I necessarily want to sleep amongst the fleas in Mumbai, but I do want to see it all and, if possible, I want to understand it a little. Don’t get me wrong, I am not some bleeding heart liberal who wants to give food and money to every poor person in the world. But I am interested in the logistics of life in other countries.

What I have learned is this: 

In some of the poorest countries, they seem the happiest. I have gone to festivals in Bolivia or in Malawi where people are enjoying themselves fully. They are dancing and singing and clapping. They don’t need an expensive band and fancy food. They have each other and their mood creates the party. In a couple instances, I joined them, and it was so delightful. 

This Korean guy gave us booze!

People are generous. I have had people at bus stops with nothing more than the clothes on their backs offer me food. In Albania, where nobody spoke English, they gave us mandarin oranges. In Egypt, where nobody spoke English, they gave us bread. Me, with my backpack that costs more than a years salary. They gave ME food! This taught me to be a little more generous, even if it was only crackers or bread or fruit. 

People are helpful. You may go into your journey with the stereotype that Italians are loud or French people are snobby or Germans are abrupt, but really, when you get down to it, people are very helpful (and mostly very nice). When we were wandering around in circles with our backpacks looking for our hotel in Paris, we didn’t have to even stop anyone. They stopped and asked US if we needed directions. When I was looking for my hostel in Rome in the middle of the night in an unsavory neighborhood, people were helpful, even the unsavory looking ones. When I arrived in Salvadore in the wee hours of the morning, a homeless looking guy walked me home. I am not saying to completely let down your guard, but we, and especially the “we” who live in bigger cities, sometimes forget to help our fellow man. 

Crowded subway in Beijing

People get close to you: This is something we (in the US) don’t deal with very much, but people in many other countries have absolutely NO personal space. They will stand right on top of you with their sweaty armpit right near your face. It’s okay. Get used to it. Next time, it will be your sweaty armpit in their face. 

People make do with what they have: We saw outdoor “churches” in Africa, because they didn’t have a building big enough to house everyone.  They sang hallelujah to the skies and it was beautiful. I am not a religious person, but I wanted to join them. 

So, I learned a little about the logistics of life in other countries. I still have a lot to learn. But the main point I have taken from traveling so far is that people are good. Yes, there are wars and strife and fighting. There is starvation and pain and hate. But the evildoers are the minority. You cannot judge a country (ours included) by its leader or its government. You need to meet the people. The people are the key. 

 

And the people are wonderful. 

So go, plan that trip to _____ that you have always wanted to take. Don't be afraid. Go to the market there and talk to the locals, even if you don’t speak the same language. Taste their strange food and ride too close to them on a strange vehicle. 

Live their life for a minute. Do what they do. And learn from them. 

What have you learned from traveling? What stereotypes do you think people have about your state or your country before going there? Do you think they find it to be true?

lost local nosh

I'll never forget baking Christmas cookies last year for hours on end....multiple days....multiple types of cookies....and being absolutely miserable about it...

I was about to pass out from dehydration in a massive sweat.....in Santiago Chile.
Chileans don't bake cookies and if you do find a cookie, think non chewy, bad quality bleuh!

Baking cookies isn't exactly a known Holiday custom in Chile for a reason....it's summer!
The last thing you are supposed to do is slave away in front of an oven....other reasons?   Ovens don't have an actual temperature gauge on them and most of them have to be lit from the inside with your head stuck inside with a lit match while it's filling with gas. (To my own astonishment at my own idiocy, I did this a lot!  There's no other way!)

You know what Chileans love to eat for Christmas?  FRUIT CAKE!  The entire month of December!
No kidding...massive quantities of the stuff...the joke product most Americans won't touch with a ten foot pole runs out of stock at grocery stores all over Chile come Christmas!  (I still can't really stand it, but I tried)

This is a mere example of the oddness which can occur trying to mix one cultures food with another.  A lot of foods in so many places are popular for certain holidays, festivals, seasons, for one major reason....it's locally grown, it's cheap, it's EASY!  These facts combined lead to a certain food becoming a tradition passed down by generations and next thing you know, some pour girl is slaving away over little rounds of dough on the 20th floor of a Santiago sky scraper!

My favorite of all parts of travel is discovering new foods in new places and eating what the locals eat!   Without these local traditions with special local ingredients...I would have no reason to want to travel!

a toothpaste tube of caviar and chocolate milk in Norway, the only things we could afford in the grocery store!

 Now being back in the States, I'm always looking for those new and exciting flavors I discovered else where as well...and when I do find them, I'm thrilled!  But it comes at a price.   I'm the odd one walking into asian grocery stores hunting down lemon grass, galanga leaves and receiving funny glares and stares.  I remember days in the lunch room at my old work with looks of "you are really eating that?" as I slurp down my homemade muss'man curry with Thai eggplants and chunks of bamboo shoot.  Things that are popular in one region of the world aren't so much in others for a reason....they aren't grown locally!

All of the Spanierds we know here in the States dream about legs of jamon (ham) knowing it's almost impossible to find here.  Chileans talk about lemon pie and pisco sours in a whisper, as both pisco and lemons are pricey here.  I know I would have sold plasma for just a crumb of aged Wisconsin Extra Sharp ten year cheddar while traveling....something I can find now as free tasting samples twice a week at the farmers market!

chewing on some fresh cane sugar plant on the border of Malawi and Zambia...given to me by a local who laughed at my inability to shuck/chew/spit my cane as I should have and had to help and show me how, to the great entertainment of onlookers

That's the drive that forced me to sweat thru batches of cookies in the middle of a hot day...longing for that certain taste and flavor that brings back such beautiful memories of places and people that have made me so happy!  It's amazing how food can transport you from one time and place to another and what we'll do and pay to recreate that experience! 

Do you have a certain food you long for from some other part of the world?
Do you have a favorite meal from your home town you tried to make somewhere else?
How'd that go for ya?

10 Beautiful Places (1)

There are so many beautiful places in the world. It is hard to say which ones are better than which other ones. So, this list is not necessarily The Most Beautiful places, only ten beautiful places in the world that I have been (excluding the US this time, because I could name 10 in this country alone!) I have more than this already, so there will definitely be a sequel. Also, I don't plan on quitting travel any time soon, so I am sure there will be even more someday! When you are done with this one, if you want another great list, you can also check out my 10 Great Experiences In The World to Try.

Here they are, in no particular order. 

  

1. Lençóis Maranhenses:  These sand dunes in Brazil are constantly changing. In the wet months, their low points fill with water and the combination of the rippling white sand with the blue, blue water is just breathtaking. You can swim in the pools between dunes. If you go at sunset, you will get great views (if it isn't cloudy and rainy like it was when we were there). 

2. Gjirokastër:  Built in the 1300s, this city is all built from stone (even the shingles on the roofs). It was under Ottoman rule for hundreds of years and is one of Albania's biggest Greek communities today.It is like being in a vampire movie, but not in a bad way.

3.Queenstown: This New Zealand town probably appeals to me becuase it reminds me of where I grew up. Nonetheless, it is a beauty. I was there in the summer time, but in the winter, the above peaks are covered in snow and this town is a skiers mecca. 

4. Kotor, Montenegro: Everywhere that I went in Montenegro was beautiful (see also Durmitor). However, this idyllic bay setting was top notch. The city of Kotor itself is a walled city made from stone and fortified upon it's surrounding mountains. You should definitely go here instead of (or in addition to) going to Dubrovnik.

5.Himalayas: Hiking in the Himalayas for 3 weeks was one of the highlights of my trip around the world. I will go back there someday, as there are many, MANY more mountains I want to conquer!

6.Patagonia, Argentina: This photo is of Mt. Fitz Roy.The peaks were so steep and formidable and rocky; the lakes were so, so blue. The hiking was great. What more could you ask for!?

7. Patagonia, Chili: It looks like Yosemite, doesn't it? Well it's not; it's Torres del Paine. We spent nine days hiking up and down and around these peaks and it was wonderful. Each new turn showed us something different, a lake, a glacier or a new mountain.

8. Cartagena:  This city in Columbia was full of color and music and life. And fresh fruit juice. And a HUGE iguana. You could spend a couple days just wandering around it's neighborhoods.

9.Whitehaven Beach: Located in the Whitsunday Islands of Australia, this inlet, called the Hill inlet, like the Lençóis Maranhenses, changes each day when the wind moves the sands. This makes it have patterns of sand and water that are different each day. Also the beach nearby is a beauty, with white sand and clear warm water. Just watch out for Jellyfish!

10. Venice: Okay, I had to put one "classic" on here. Any city near or in this case ON the water is usually not bad, but Venice has the added bonus of having great architecture as well. I chose the photo above because everyone has already seen all the cliche gondola photos. This one caught my eye. How romantic, right?

Going over this list makes me want to revisit ALL these places! Sigh. Am starting a piggy bank now.

What is the most beautiful place YOU have been to? Let us know in the comments! 

Don't forget, we also want your travel stories. It can be a list of dos, don'ts or places; it can be something funny or scary or weird that happened to you; it can be a wishlist or a list of questions; it can be a horror story or a love story. If you have anything to say about travel and want to be a guest poster, let us know! Email us at travelspot06 at gmail dot com.  You can check out THIS page for ideas.

where to next?

Do you look up at the sky when you hear an airplane and wonder where it's heading/wish you were on it?

I do!

My husband has it down to airline companies, times and directions...
"Delta....definitely Delta...on its way to Detroit" ....sigh....
He likes to fly, despite the annoyances of carry on sized shampoos, security check points and waiting around forever...he loves the romanticism of being in one place one moment and somewhere that looks completely different within hours.....and now he's gotten me addicted as well!

Flying Delta to Santiago...pure joy

I love to hear about where my friends are traveling to, what they eat, what they see, how they liked it....
and of course this makes me crave to hit the road again even more!

(If you catch the travel bug, it doesn't matter where you've been...you want more!...there's never enough time to do it all, not even mentioning all the incredible places I'd like to return to!)


One place in particular has been on my mind for months, due to beautiful photos of hillsides and spicy foods and crazy looking fruits, stories of adventures and simply the look people have in their eyes when they speak of how much they love this particular place...it makes me itch to buy a ticket right now!

The Nam (River) Ou in Northern Laos

Where to next?  Vietnam!
The North, the South and the in between.  We managed to get to Indonesia Malaysia, Thailand and Laos n Southeast Asia, but we ran out of time to reach Vietnam and Cambodia...there's never enough time!  My husband wants to go along of course, but for him, he's more excited to see Borneo, or perhaps parts of China, maybe even jump on the Trans Siberian in Russia ...let's just say he has a much longer list of required places to visit...he's a dreamer!

A juice stand in Thailand

I love to ask people where they'd like to travel to next if they could, because I can almost feel their spirits getting lighter and happier as they dream of their next crazy endeavor and share it with me.  Of course there are always the realities of jobs and leases, saving enough money and thinking responsibly to the future....but as my husband likes to say, "dreaming is free!"

Where would you like to go next?!?