Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

quote of the day: travel

Chef/writer Anthony Bourdain, in an interview with literary blog Bookslut, really hits the nail on the head when he describes the terror and triumph of travelling outside your comfort zone:

I can only say to them that I understand how frightening it is when you first go to somewhere even like Tokyo. It’s really intimidating to even feed yourself. The moment when you finally overcome that, when you summon the will to walk into a place filled with people who don’t speak your language, stare at you when you come in, you’re going to be awkward, you’re going to order food and you don’t know what it is, you’re going to do things wrong. Once you’re able to successfully order breakfast for yourself, it’s a really, deeply satisfying moment. Being lost and disoriented is good. Learning little things. That first random act of kindness from a stranger offering you food or showing you where to go or telling you about a really great bar, those have been the most wonderful moments of my life.

A few years ago, I went to Italy by myself as part of a tour group. (I didn’t want to travel alone to a non-English-speaking country, so I joined a group.) On that trip, one of the most authentic experiences I had was when, instead of joining the rest of our tour group in the hotel restaurant, a few of my traveling companions and I walked a mile or two down the road to find a restaurant in the next town. It was late at night, we were hungry and no one at the restaurant spoke English (though our waiter and a girl in our group each spoke some German). And in that stilted dining experience, while I felt like a stereotypical “stupid American traveler,” I also felt a certain amount of pride in our eventual success in ordering our meal — a few halfway decent pizzas. We didn’t know what we were doing, but we figured it out. While this was a fairly hum-drum thing, there’s a measure of triumph in being able to accomplish something mundane in an alien setting. I saw a lot of amazing things during the 11 days I was in Italy, but, somehow, that pride I felt in accomplishing the mundane — surviving that dinner or buying train tickets or finding Internet cafes — was one of the best things about that trip.

I can’t wait to do something like that again — and maybe travel to someplace really different.

Stepping outside that comfort zone can be a scary thing, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for folks like Megan and Michael and Michaela, who have had the courage to explore places far more “alien” than the still-very-Western Italy — and who have been rewarded for their open-mindedness and sense of adventure with some amazing experiences.