Transforming from a Tourist to a Traveler
Get off the bus and on your feet, on your bike, in your car, or best yet, on public transportation.  Even tours give you free time.  So whether you are on your own or on a tour – find time to really experience where you end up.  To the tour operator, that means seeing museums and other public attractions, but that’s just the beginning.  To Gary and me, having this experience means meeting people, sampling the food, and staying long enough to learn our way around. 

In 1995, we had the opportunity to spend three uninterrupted months traveling throughout the South Pacific.  In that time, we spent two weeks in Fiji, two weeks in Hawaii, two weeks in Sydney and nine weeks in New Zealand.  Crazy to spend that much time in such a small country?  Crazy to go all the way to Australia and never leave Sydney?  We think not.  From that trip, I got such a strong understanding of New Zealand and its people.  I also got a great feel for Sydney.  What a fabulous city!!  Although I plan to go back to Australia to inspect its other parts, I know Sydney well, and I hope to spend even more time there in the future.

Transforming yourself from a tourist to a traveler doesn’t take seeing everything everywhere.  Instead it takes a transformation of the soul from needing to boast about where all you have been to getting a certain place under your skin.  Gary and I have several of those places in the world.  While we will always travel to places that we may never visit again, Amsterdam and Rio de Janeiro have become a part of our soul.

Yes there are times when Gary and I are still tourists.  We will pop from there to there, sometimes missing that which only reveals itself in time.  More often, we find a place and learn it from the inside out.  Although I am still racing my brother to 50 states (and I am winning!!), I don’t care if I go everywhere, as long as I can continue to experience places both new and old. 

Often the best way to truly experience a city, hamlet or countryside is to sit, let life go by, and watch people.  It’s not for the Type A personality.  Oh the joy it brings me: people are my favorite animal.  Better yet, if your newfound favorite place has a pub, café or coffee shop with errant help, often you can sit for hours nursing a single drink.  Errant or not, remember to tip well, you camper you!!!

Q: What’s the definition of a crying shame? 

A: A tour bus going over a cliff…with one seat empty.

– unknown

Volcano Hat Lady — Geralds, Montserrat, West Indies