This is one of my favorite shots from Yellowstone. Very little tweaking of color was needed as the sulfur and microbial mats radiate yellow and orange while the water is a surreal and bewitching shade of turquoise. This was with my Nikon D5000 (Nikon AF-S DX Zoom- Nikkor 18-55mm.) Although this was just my kit lens, I can still get a ton done when I travel without worrying too much about damaging expensive gear.
“Sometimes even terrible books are good for you.”
I mentioned that I was interviewed on a podcast recently. That podcast is “The 9th Story”, done by good friends Jeanette Andromeda and Immortal Alexander. I’m a prodigious reader, traveling with my mind when I can’t with my feet. If you want to hear me chat about my favorite books, how I choose books, why reading is important, or what makes me stick with a book once I’ve picked it up, you should give it listen.
“No one ever gets talker’s block. No one wakes up in the morning, discovers he has nothing to say and sits quietly, for days or weeks, until the muse hits, until the moment is right, until all the craziness in his life has died down.”
Damn, Seth Godin, you know how to get a girl right in the feels.
So I love to talk about travel with people. I ADORE talking about places I’ve been, making recommendations, comparing notes, finding out about places I hadn’t heard of or visited yet. I love comparing cultures and languages, talking about books and movies and music. I talk all the time (just ask my husband.)
So why then, when I started this blog in September, did I put in a few measly posts and walk away after January? What on earth have I been doing?
Honestly, I was overwhelmed. I was intimidated by the endless list of chores to do with a self-hosted blog, the unreachable perfection of posts I will never finish editing, the perfectly processed (and captioned) images which, of course, were taken by yours truly. I hadn’t built a photo gallery yet. I hadn’t fixed my mailing list or found the best spam filter. I hadn’t done laundry, cleaned the fridge, or fed the cats.
It’s amazing what you can get done when you’re procrastinating doing something you want to do even less- I’ve written tons of reviews on Goodreads(and?) drawn-out and thoughtful posts on Facebook (so what?) tiny quips on twitter (#140forever) and won a few photo competitions (okay, that last one is kind of cool. I am proud of my photography.)
And, of course, I’ve done some more adventuring. I volunteered in residence at a Monastery. I was interviewed on a podcast and sent a complimentary pre-release copy of a book I was really excited about. I was in the bridal party of a full Hindu wedding. I worked fashion week (Nicole Kidman and Adrian Brody!) I luxuriated in the silence of a Scandinavian Spa in a small Canadian ski town. I wrote an original score to a puppet show. I did a Southern Fried Road Trip to New Orleans for my birthday and got a little broken doing remote volunteer dispatch and data entry for Harvey in Houston. I went from feeding zero cats to feeding eight of them (explanations forthcoming, I promise.)
Honestly, I can’t wait to tell you all about it. And I see my perfection, my ideal word count, my precisely formatted posts just aren’t getting done.
So like a potter at the wheel, I’m going to throw me some clay and see what sticks. Maybe, like Seth, my posts will be shorter. They may be slightly less on-brand. They may not include eye-catching pictures and SEO-tailored keywords. But they will exist and that’s better than where I’m at now.
Do you know what got me back here? I made a bet with my husband. If I could publish FIVE entries within the next two weeks, he would indulge me with the greatest $10 spicy crunchy thai chili-dipped calamari on the entire planet.
Do you think I can do it?
This year, I have some crazy ideas.
A few days ago, I got notification of success on my Diplôme d’études en langue française B1 exam I sat in December.
I didn’t have much trouble with it (with one exception which I will detail later) and feel confident in scheduling my B2 exam for March, hopefully passing C1 by the end of the year.
“But Mary,” you might say, “what’s the rush?”
Well the rush is (embarrassingly) I have been “studying french” for 15 years. Before December, I last took a french exam in 2004- high school! But the progress I’ve made over the last few months has been greater than that of the past ten years. I am speeding along and I can give you the tips and tricks I’ve learned on the way. With some work, I should have no trouble passing my exams in a few months even without immersion.
You see, I’m not just working on French. I am also functional in Japanese, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and German, with bare bones Mandarin, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Classical Greek, Latin, and ASL. The learning curve for each of these languages is different, but the learning rules are the same.
So besides French, I’m hoping to certify two other languages this year- Italian(CILS) along with Japanese (JLPT 4kyuu) in December and possibly Mandarin(HSK) as well.
Languages interest me and always have but I haven’t always been good at them, and worse, I haven’t always been efficient. My mistakes, though, are your gain: after confirming my skills in a three-month backpacking trip through Europe, I consider myself a master language learner. Back home at last, I am on fire.
In this series, I hope to answer some of your common language learning questions and share my favorite tools and techniques. Some upcoming topics include:
I will especially focus on free tools, since that’s always my preference, but will also include those that give the best bang for your buck. Look for a list of these on my resources page.
Do you have any language tools or tricks you think are indispensable? Tell me in the comments!
“They say that when good Americans die they go to Paris,” chuckled Sir Thomas…
“Really! And where do bad Americans go to when they die?” inquired the Duchess.
“They go to America,” murmured Lord Henry.-Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
I thought I had been fairly thorough: I visited the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triumph, and Sacre Coeur. I gawked at the bells of Notre Dame, the windows in Saint Chapelle, and basked in the neon glow of the Moulin Rouge. The ten days of my visit, I feasted on endless pain aux raisin with cafe crème in streetside cafes, flailing hopelessly in french, enchanted with endless boulangeries, fromageries, and hordes of chinese tourists. I even got out of town for a day to see Versailles and Marie Antoinette’s “Petit Trianon”.
When I returned home, I recovered from my postpartum blues with a Lost Generation binge of Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Gertrude Stein. I had been convinced I hated Hemingway’s icy prose and flimsy heroines until he exposed his soft underbelly in “A Moveable Feast”. That was when I first heard of Shakespeare and Co. and marked it down for a future visit.
“Shakespeare and Company” was a bookstore created by American Sylvia Beach on the Left Bank in 1919. Besides selling English language books, Sylvia loaned books to promising young authors. The store quickly became a central point for ex-pat writers like Ezra Pound, Hemingway, James Joyce, and Fitzgerald. When the war came, the shop closed in 1941. Despite Hemingway “personally liberating” the place after the war, it never reopened. In 1951, a friend of Sylvia’s, George Whitman opened his own bookshop called “Le Mistral” modeled after Shakespeare and Co, fulfilling the legacy of the bohemian cultural center. in 1958, Sylvia gave George usage of the name of her beloved shop, which is Shakespeare and Co today.
Since George’s death in 2011, Shakespeare and Company has been run by his daughter, Sylvia Whitman (named after Beach). Upstairs hides several small cots and beds, which are part of the shop’s informal “residency” program. Young artists and writers, “Tumbleweeds”, as they are called, are invited to stay in the shop for free, in return for helping out. An estimated 30,000 aspiring artists have stayed here since 1951
As a lover of books, I am also in love with bookstores, especially the used variety, with crammed-full dusty shelves, or the thoughtful type, full of esoteric titles hand-picked by artsy college students. This was more the latter than the former.
On entry, I was underwhelmed. This place had plenty of books, of course, and a little cafe next door. The downstairs was a madhouse of noisy tourists, wafting in and out, munching vegan coffee cake.
Upstairs it is quieter. Only perhaps 40% of nosy visitors wind their way up the narrow steps. There, one finds a spinnet and scraps of sheet music (always exciting to musicians like me.) There are several pillowed benches which double as cots and a few nooks with typewriters including one surrounded by post-it notes of poetry, pinned to the wall. My husband left me a note there himself and won’t tell me what it says “until next time”.
One typewriter sits alone by a small window, facing Notre Dame in all her glory.
Ignoring my usual haste to hurry in and out, I took a seat, moleskin notebook in hand, sketching the typewriter and jotting down a few lines.
I am an impatient traveler, always racing to explore the next corner, filling my days as if they are numbered, which of course, they are. But a day raced through goes no slower and the number of places visited does not increase their worth. This trip, I had disciplined myself with daily journaling to better remember each day, an attempt to hold more of the sand sifting between my fingers.
And as I sat, the magic began to happen. Like a butterfly, magic will not approach so readily if you are in a rush. But if you sit very still and pay close attention, you may get a glimpse out of the corner of your eye. You see, my husband was with me too, and he took a seat with a likely old tome to peruse as I journaled. And a homeless drunk came upstairs.
This disheveled creature had been wandering for some time, muttering to herself, bumping into selfie shooting tourists (“No pictures, please”), careening through the shelves on a mysterious errand of her own.
When this ivrogne sat next to Brian, muttering half to him, half to herself, I immediately put myself on guard. His french isn’t very good, you see, and I’m always on the alert to remove us from a bad situation. But when he gestured helplessly at her french, she switched to English, and they began a kind of dreamy conversation.
I couldn’t catch all of it, neither, I think, could Brian, as she kept lapsing in and out of her native language, but she spoke of loneliness and he listened, patiently. She asked him his favorite book. Then she spoke of how a novel can capture a place eternally, whether or not it ever really existed at all, and the comfort a book can bring in taking you along with it on a journey to somewhere safe, somewhere far and always comfortable. She spoke of her family, about regret, and alcoholism. With no perceptible change in emotion, she explained how drink will kill you. As she sat on the bench, the bottle in her shopping bag shattered with a melancholy tinkle. She didn’t notice.
As I sat there, I realized what the shop really meant, what it really stood for. Shakespeare and Co. is more than just another English bookstore, a tiny Anglo island in the Parisian sea. It’s more than another historical haunt of famous writers with a tiny placard on the wall, “Hemingway sat here”.
Shakespeare and Company represents the Foreigner’s dream of Paris. Like New York, the Big Apple, the Land of Golden Opportunity to immigrants, Paris has long been the promised land for artists, musicians, and writers, for the melancholy and the mad, the sparkling and the tarnished alike. New York is many things to many people, a gritty, filthy city of chaos and culture, but through the dream of the immigrant we glimpse what New York could be, what New York represents. In Shakespeare and Co., we see Paris as the dream of the foreigner, as it was a haven for the Lost.
Seated at the dusty typewriter, looking out that tiny window over Notre Dame, we too can see the most magical view of Paris: that of the heart.
For more information on “Shakespeare and Company”, their events, and inquiries on their residency programs, visit their website.
It’s a rainy, wet, dreary day today, the perfect kind of morning to curl up on the couch with some Earl Grey and Jane Austin or “Seven Years in Tibet“. Or, alternatively, we can cast our minds to beautiful places far away, whether to daydream, plan, or remember. We can visit tropical wonderlands like Key West.
Today I’m going to tell you a secret, a traveler’s secret. You know my favorite kind of secret? When you go somewhere you’ve never been in your whole life and you can still show someone something amazing your first time there, something totally unexpected and marvelous?
This was a something passed on to me and now I can share it with you. But let’s keep it special, shall we?
The island of Key West is at the end of one of the most gorgeous road trips in the whole world. If you’ve never been to a tropical paradise, you may be unprepared for the turquoise blue of the water or the impeccable visibility, falsely attributing it to some kind of Instagram filter. You may be surprised by the colorful birds and fish, the treacherous humidity, the lazily hanging mosses.
Personally, I was most surprised when I ran over a crocodile with my rented bike.
My first trip to Key West was supposed to be a weekend in Maine. It was my birthday and I was excited to return to Acadia National Park… but then rain happened. When my traveling companion glanced at the radar and delivered the bad news, I asked how far the green splotch on the map went – Vermont? Wet. Cincinnati? Soaking. Virginia Beach? Damp, at best. Well, then, where did the giant green splotch end?
“Charleston,” he replied.
“Charleston,” I said, tasting the distant city on my tongue. “So we drive to Charleston,” I said, “and we see how far we get.”
Well, we made it to Charleston in time for a delicious cup of morning coffee and doughnuts, and, with the wanderer’s creed of “just a bit farther” we continued to Savannah, St Augustine, Miami … and Key West. A mere spur-of-the-moment 1,500 miles.
Accommodations:
Miami itself is further from Key West than one might think, 3.5 hours drive without traffic. If there is any traffic, you’re done for, because there is exactly one main road that goes through the islands (route 1, of course). It’s also two hours between the first key (Key Largo) and the final one (Key West) so plan accordingly, especially if you have a flight out of MIA to worry about. Now, for cheaper accommodations, I recommend staying off the final island if possible. Key West is the busiest, most popular, and most expensive of the chain. Do visit but you may not want to stay there. As for options, AirBNB is a good bet and there is at least one hostel in Key West though I have not been there. Many hotels and B&Bs will include bonuses like free fishing pole and tackle, kayaks, and bikes with stay. Drink more water than you think you’ll need, wear bug spray, and beware the heat.
Things not to miss:
Snorkle and scuba dive – If you come to this island paradise with any interest in diving, DON’T MISS IT. If you’ve never been snorkling and you can swim, I highly recommend giving it a try. It’s some of the most exciting diving on the planet. You put your face in the water and it’s like watching National Geographic. For around $40 per person, you can join a diving group for maybe four hours out on the water. It’s fantastic. One other pro tip- don’t forget to reapply your reef-friendly sunscreen every few hours. The water can act like a magnifying lens, frying your back as you paddle merrily along, which you won’t be feeling for several hours (and oh boy, then you’re going to feel it for sure!)
If you’re not hitting the reef and you still need sun care, check out “Sun Bum” sunscreen. It’s in many beach shops there and California and if you don’t mind spending a little extra, you, too, can smell like a very expensive banana (and you’re going to need their cooling lotion if you missed that last tip about reapplying sunscreen!) Overpriced? Almost definitely, but like the scent of “Sex Wax”, it instantly transports me to warm beaches and endless sun, which in February is much cheaper than a ticket to Orlando!
The Hemmingway House is absolutely worth a visit if you’re a book nerd, manly man, or cat fanatic and The Green Parrot exists for those who still need more of a “Papa” fix. My own favorite hobby is walking through town, admiring the stately colonial architecture, and peaking into the lush pocket gardens full of mangroves and tropical flowers. Naturally, you also need to spend time on the beach. Walking (or biking) over Seven-Mile Bridge if you’re hardy enough is unforgettable because visibility allows you to see every fish scooting along the sand beneath you. Chartered water sports in Key west (parasailing, paragliding, boat charters and rentals) are also cheaper than almost anywhere else in the US.
Lastly, a quirky piece of Americana in the restaurant Better than Sex. Like Madame Puddifoot’s in the Harry Potter movies, Better than Sex is designed as a date spot. If you found a hot date on your trip (or imported one with you) bring them here to this dessert-based placed for naughty-themed cocktails and the best chocolate grilled cheese of your life. Now, just because it’s a date place doesn’t mean this can’t just be a giggle-worthy time with a good friend or a very special moment between you and your cheesecake. No one will judge in this candle-lit atmosphere so thick you can barely see your delicious meal. Each time we go, the ambiance gets darker- this last time they gave up entirely and swapped the paper menus for Ipads.
Eat some conch fritters and key lime pie, have a good margarita, listen to live music, do some water sports, check out the crazy sunset parties on the beach, and…
Oh, did you think I forgot the secret I said I’d tell you?
Here it is: when you get to Key West itself, Duval street is the main area and “party town”. There are all kinds of art galleries and tchotchke stores on Duval. There is also a Starbucks.
Near sunset time, go into this Starbucks, sneak out the back door into the Hotel, and go straight into the elevator on the other side. Head to the top floor. Stay sneaky. Hum “Mission Impossible” if that helps.
Wah-la. You are in one of the best and highest places in town to grab a drink and watch the sunset over the whole city. They frequently have live bands playing and they fix a mean cocktail.
Have you been to Key West lately? Did I miss anything important? What’s the farthest you’ve gone on a spontaneous road trip? Tell me in the comments.
Whether you’re trying something new or just hunting down the best fresh, local ingredients, good food can give you an insight into new cultures and make you feel far from home in a good way.
Picking a good place when you’re away can put the pressure on- you’re only around a limited time with a limited budget and a bad meal can sour your day. Even worse, getting caught in a “tourist trap” can give you subpar food at high prices.
If you don’t know anyone in town and you don’t know the area, how do you find a good place?
Fear not for I am a broke foodie and have made finding good food away from home an art form! Here are my secrets:
1) Walk around:
This is my most important tip. Don’t leave finding a place to the last minute when possible– hanger can make for bad decision-making. Instead, keep meals in the back of your mind as you explore. You’re going to have to eat some time, right? If you see a good-looking place, glance at the menu and start getting a feel for typical prices and food in the area. This will help you not get ripped off. Definitely take a look at what people are ordering as well- if it makes you drool, what you order will probably be good too. Don’t be afraid to follow your nose!
2) Use Yelp:
Most restaurants are clustered in certain areas. Maybe you already have a feel for the busy places from exploring, but if not, use yelp or other review sites (when possible) to find where the food is. Definitely look at reviews if there are any, but don’t just go by stars- check and read some of the bad reviews too. Make sure none of the mentioned issues are ones you’re not willing to deal with.
3) Never feel like you have to eat at a place before you see the menu
Sticker shock hurts! Often menus are posted outside or you can ask a waiter to see one. If you sit, are handed a menu, and the prices or offerings are not what you want, head out and find a better place. You may not be in town again, right? Don’t be guilted into a bad meal or one outside of your budget.
4) Location location location:
Often restaurants right next to a famous area or monument (I’m looking at you, the Latin Quarter) are awful. They’re designed for travelers who don’t know any better. Even the better restaurants in touristy areas may be overpriced. Don’t be afraid to go down the side alleys for a better deal and better time.
5) Do what the locals do:
Talk to people in your hostel or leaders of your walking tours about where they like to eat most (phrasing it like that will hopefully avoid steering you to generic tourist options). For the most part avoid chains. When possible, beware places with menus in several languages, especially those that only list the most twee dishes of the area like “fondue” and “cassoulet” or “authentic paella“. Beware the word “authentic” at all cost! How does the menu look? Is it updated day-to-day with seasonal ingredients or does it look like a diner menu full of clip-art that hasn’t changed since 1998? Don’t underestimate local options like food carts and markets- if a food spot is busy and full of locals, it’s probably a great place and even cheap places can have incredible food.
When choosing a place to eat, any and all of these rules can be broken. Sometimes a tourist location is located so well or is so beautiful, it’s worth the risk. Sometimes there’s a very specific deal or menu item you want to try or you don’t have many options to choose from. Don’t forget that a bad meal isn’t the end of the world!
My final recommendation is that we all could stand to broaden our palettes and eat more local food. Food from home is likely to be more expensive and not as good. Besides, did you really come half-way around the world to eat a crappy hamburger at McDonald’s? Before you choose your next meal, remember that food is an intrisic part of a place’s culture. As a traveler, an adventurer, an explorer, we should celebrate that.
How about you, what was your best food find on the road? What was your worst food disaster? Tell me in the comments!
-M
Ah, the joys of traveling with a friend or partner! Although going solo is a pleasure in itself, having someone to share memories with for a lifetime is fantastic and can be safer and more comfortable than starting out alone.
However, we’re all familiar with the problems that can come from traveling with others– Maybe they want to take things slowly and you’d rather run around. Maybe they prefer traveling at a higher level of luxury than you can afford or aren’t interested in the kinds of activities you are. Maybe they’re not as fit or adventurous and may hold you back from doing things you’re excited about.
Small nuances like someone who talks all the time when you want quiet aren’t even noticeable until you’ve spent 48 hours with a person and can lead to vicious blow-outs.
I get surprised when people ask me how I can spend so much time alone with my husband, Brian. After getting used to our life, I forget that it’s not the norm- We’ve spent months traveling as just the two of us when some partners and spouses I know barely get to spend 24 hours in a row together. Brian and I got our travel lives started early- two weeks after I asked him on a date, Brian asked me to come to Las Vegas with him for a week. In fact, it was on that Vegas trip I knew we were destined for great things because Brian, terrified of heights, offered to go on the zipline over Old Vegas with me.
When I realized how white-knuckled he was when it was our turn, I asked him, “Wait, why are you doing this if you’re so afraid of heights?“
And he answered, “Well, if we’re going to have adventures together the rest of our lives, I figured I’d better start now!“
(COME ON GUYS IS THAT NOT A KEEPER??)
But I digress:
How do you travel with a partner and avoid wanting to kill them?
Much of the prep of a good trip happens long before you get to the airport. Good research and solid communication sets you up for a good time before you get there. Many of the questions are the same ones you should ask yourself when planning any trip, even if you’re going alone.
Questions to ask yourself and your travel partner:
Do you travel with partners or friends? How do you choose who to travel with? What have you enjoyed most about traveling with others? Do you have any horror stories? How did you deal with them? Tell me in a comment!
Here’s a hint: it’s not because I make a fortune. I don’t have a trust fund or a secret sugar daddy (though I’m sure my mom is still waiting for me to get one of those). I don’t “know someone” in the industry to get great deals. So my great secret? I’ve learned to make travel a priority and I know that the first step out the door is always the hardest.
This wasn’t always who I was. When I was eight, budding artist that I was, I drew tons of pictures of exactly how I envisioned my future self: an awkwardly busty blonde in a slinky red dress, taking my fancy friends to Paris and London and New York (which was equally exotic at that point) in limos, probably by 17, at which point I’d have two kids and live in a yacht by 22.
Well, firstly, I’m a brunette and maybe I don’t prioritize limo rides nearly as often as I should. As for busty: well … at least I can buy those at Victoria Secret when I need to, am I right?
But I am wearing a pair of pants I love from Spain, a copper bracelet from London, and comfortable sweater from Paris. I have friends all over the world and I know any time I put a few hundred bucks aside, I can hop on a plane and go pretty much anywhere. I know that I can go to any cafe on the planet and figure out how to order a coffee the way I like it. I know that if something happens in a country halfway around the world, I can ask someone nearby for their perspective.
However, this didn’t happen for me at 17. It didn’t even happen at 22. I was deep into my twenties before I started reading and studying and understanding what was out there, before technology caught up in a big way to make travel easier, faster, and cheaper. I had a suspicion that something wasn’t right in how I was arranging my life, that this couldn’t be all there was. After falling down the rabbit hole of “The Four Hour Workweek” and discovering the wide world of lifestyle hackers, I found my tribe. Even after all that, however, I still had to work up the courage to step out the door.
Now, as my life becomes more flexible and digital and as I meet more of the thousands of digital nomads and long-term travelers around the planet, it becomes easier and easier to call myself a citizen of the world. People are totally amazed when I show them just how cheap and simple travel really can be!
The more you travel, the more you travel. All it takes is that first step with itchy feet- Maybe you start by exploring your own city, then take a day trip to the larger city nearby. Next, you explore the state, the neighboring states, the country – (or you can just skip this, and go further. Some people need baby steps!) But remember, if you can figure out how to get around in Boston, you can figure out New York. If you can figure out L.A. and Chicago, you can understand London or Sydney. Paris and Hong Kong aren’t much more difficult. All cities, to some extent, are alike, and once you learn to “play charades” in a language you don’t know and the basics of protecting yourself in urban touristic areas (both of which I will be writing about) you’re all out of excuses.
So where have you always wanted to go? What has made you put it off? If someone gave you a free ticket tomorrow to your dream destination, what would you do there? Tell me in a comment!
We are Brian and Mary, two world wanderers and adventure-seekers who are always looking for the way to live a better, more fulfilling life, whether that’s through mindfulness, better efficiency practices, or new technology. Our unusual lifestyle has lead us through twenty years of freelancing and project management, a 9200-mile road trip around the US (with a two-year-old), two and a half months backpacking Europe, and many other wacky adventures. The people we’ve met, places we’ve been, experiences we’ve had, and things we’ve learned have transformed us into who we are today.
We are so excited, so inspired by the things we discover that make our lives richer and more interesting, that we want to share them with others. After fielding hundreds of questions, we’ve decided to start a blog to share with all of you and to show you how easy it is to completely transform your life.