I love road trips - whether I'm driving or not. Sitting in the car, watching the road unfold ahead. Making the perfect playlist, or being pleasantly surprised when shuffle seems to know exactly what you want to hear. Group road rage, ogling the cuties in the next car, running out of gas on a back road in a strange town the morning of the first day of classes.
I love train trips - the slow rumble as the train gets started. Men helping little old ladies push their oversize suitcases into the overhead racks. Watching the scenery fly by to the rhythm of the turning wheels. Ticket punchers and the clothes the conductors wear.
I love plane trips - passport stamps. Butterflies in my stomach as the plane takes off. Flight attendants giving us knowing looks as we order gin and tonics, and telling us to take it easy. The moment when you step outside the airport and are officially in a whole new world.
I love bus trips - three friends crowded together on uncomfortable seats, but happy just to be together. Sprinting across lanes of traffic to arrive, gasping, at the last minute before the bus leaves. "You people from Albany be getting lucky," says the bus driver, grinning.
I want to say I love boat trips but I've never taken one, unless the 18 minute trip from one end of the Head of the Charles course to the other end counts.
Travel is clearly my favorite thing. I don't care if its driving from Albany to Boston, taking the Metro North from Poughkeepsie to New York, or Flying from JFK to Paris, Brazil, or China. I love everything about it, even the obnoxious lines at airports, uncooperative bus attendants, and unforeseen car problems that even stump the two state troopers who pull over to see what the hell is going on.
In my 22 years of live I've been to Salvador da Bahia, Brazil; Qingdao, Beijing, and Shanghai, China; Paris, France; Dublin, Ireland; Florence, Italy; Montreal, Canada (four times in one month...an excessive number of middle school field trips); Tijuana, Mexico, and several of the united states. I also transferred planes in a German airport once. I love all the places I've been and am thankful I got to experience them because they have changed me and molded me in ways I cant even explain. I know things about myself that I wouldnt know otherwise. For example, I am a city girl. I need to live in a city, full stop. I also know that if I can figure things out in a city where i a) know nobody, b) have zero language skills, or c) all of the above, I will be fine anywhere. It's a real confidence boost.
There will absolutely be more to come on this topic, but for now...
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