Non-Tourists on the Road Less Traveled
Our current trip is not about vacationing.
We are in research mode, work-from-the-road mode, convalescent rest cure mode, extreme gadget testing mode…but very much not in tourist mode.
It’s something like “a movable feast” transformed into “a movable nap,” with a mad scientist thrown in for good measure.
Oddly enough, I have never been much of a tourist. I was able to accomplish a great deal of travel when I was young by studying and working in a range of locations, partly thanks to my interest in learning languages. I found that my experience of a place was significantly different if I was holding down a (local) job, shopping at the local grocery, and living as much as I could in the rhythm of local life than if I was visiting on a one-week sight seeing tour (to state the obvious).
Neil adds that he is likewise not fazed by changing places. Having grown up in an Air Force family that moved about a great deal, he gets his bearings quickly when he wakes up in a new place—just as quickly as “at home” in any rate. As you can see, for both of us “home” is a flexible concept, and that’s part of what makes this trip both possible and comfortable.
Our current trip so far is much more like my previous experience of extended contracts abroad. Except of course that the majority of people around us speak English, no one knows on sight that we are outsiders (they do seem to figure it out rather quickly though), and Neil’s job isn’t in a local place of business so we don’t have a built-in social network of local people.
Neil adds that we are “temporary regulars.” I agree. This echoes my experiences abroad, as well. Rather than passing through, we “live here,” wherever here is at the moment, even if we might not live here next week.]
We were on the phone with my parents last night, and another question we’re finding hard to answer is “what have you been doing lately”: because what we’ve been doing tends to be what we would be doing if we were at home, only we’re doing it somewhere else.
Of course, one of the main objectives of this trip is to play-test new locations to live. The best way to find out how we’d enjoy living somewhere is to replicate our daily life. Fortunately, we are very good at this and bring years of experience to the task.
The saying goes that a change is as good as a rest, and we’re certainly finding that transposing our regular life to random locations around the country is a lot of fun, and seems to be doing us a lot of good.
At the same time, with the exception of my papaya breakfast earlier this week, this trip hasn’t really felt so much like a trip at all, partly because we are fairly flexible, but mostly because we haven’t been especially touristy.
As the weather cools down towards the fall, as we build up a bit more health and energy for me, and as we fall into a new rhythm of “our life on the road,” I expect we will have much more energy and interest in excursions to museums and historic sites rather than just to natural food stores and vegetarian restaurants—in the same way that when the weather cools down and I have more energy when we are “at home,” we tend to get out and about a lot more.
(When you suddenly notice an upsurge in reports on tourist attractions and adventure tours, you’ll know that either my health has drastically improved or the temperature has dropped. (In a venn diagram, those two circles tend to overlap closely.) In the meantime, we’ll try to make our gadget reviews and experiment reports as useful and interesting as possible.)
If any readers have experience with working on the road, extended periods away from home, or other types of non-tourist long-term travel, we’re very interested in your stories and advice. The travel advice we come across seems designed for backpackers, or short term vacationers, or there-and-back business travelers, but not so much for people like us who are in a car, living on the road, and working full time (in Neil’s case).
We feel, ironically, like we are on the road less traveled, and without a map. If you have milestones or shortcuts, we would really love to hear about them.
We are always happy to ask other people for directions, if we can just find someone else who knows where we’re going.
8 comments
Yah, I’ve always felt that the way you really get to know a place is to have a reason to be there beyond tourism. Doesn’t have to be work (could be school, or family, or a hobby) but something that knits you into that social lives and rhythym of place. I like travelling, but I don’t much like touristing, as a rule.
I thought that, of all people, you might understand.
And I certainly don’t begrudge anyone else who enjoys touristing! (Goodness knows tourism drives a good chunk of the local economy in my home town.) It just isn’t so much my own cup of tea.
I’m more at-home on the road than I am ‘at home’. Always was. If I’m gone for more than a day, going back is just as weird as leaving was.
Only place I really want to tourist is Italy. But then, the Italy I want to visit is Italy in the past – Rome, the Renaissance, the middle ages, the papal court, the Doge, etc… and you can only visit the past, not live there, though some do try pretty succesfully.
Ian.
Your desire is very interesting. .. to see Italy as it was in the past, the once was.(Era comes from that, did you know that? In Italian ‘era’ means he, she, or it, was.)
We go every summer, sometimes twice if we can. We are about 45 minutes from Florence, about the same from Pisa, and about fifteen minutes from Lucca. We have not been to Florence in years now-don’t go in the summer you won’t even find a place to sit, not even in the churches-once went to Pisa-years ago, and we have not been in Lucca for two years now.
The real Italy is not in those places, wonderful as they may be with their art and architectural treasures. It’s the small towns (read ‘Italy, The Places Between’ Ruth Simon.) that are, for my wife and I, the real Italy. It is impossible to walk by another person without the two of you greeting each other, strangers though you may be.
In the larger centers everything is geared towards tourism-their number one industry,naturally-and the picture you will get is, like most Italian surfaces, superficial, one atom thick, something pretending to be something that it is not (The Italians invented guilding and, it is said by Luigi Barzini ‘in The Italians’, that they made the most beautiful armor suits ever-Beautiful artwork and engraving-and the most useless against arrow s or other weapons.
In the smaller towns the superficiality is limited social engagements, be it with the farmer next door, or the waiter at a restaurant. Italians believe that ‘in the world’ they must put on their best front, play their ‘part’ expertly,that all is drama.
If you are lucky enough to ever be invited into an Italian home (rare and a compliment when it happens) you may get a glimpse of what Italians are really like. The home is the place where they are allowed to be, in fact must be, who they, at heart, really are. Naturally, if you are a guest, the performance may continue.)
my best to you,
pepe
cool.
When I am trying to figure out where I am going, I usually ask a pizza delivery person. They have local knowledge, and since I am usually headed for pizza it works out nicely.
I have seriously considered walking into a pizza place, and ordering a pizza delivered to where I wanted to be; then hitching a ride with the delivery guy. I hold as leverage the fact that if they deliver it without me, I’m not there.
Cabbies are usually a good choice to ask, too; except, apparently in San Francisco. We were there trying to find our way around on the motorcycle. We asked several people directions, and every single one of them began, “Walk to the end of the block, and catch the #N bus…” They included a gas station attendant and a cabbie. When pointed out that we weren’t pedestrians (as we stood there carrying motorcycle helmets) none of them had a clue, anymore.
The Irony is, we were trying to find the Greyhound station.
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