Life is a Journey

As attractive as Istanbul is, the single biggest disadvantage to going there is that I’d likely spend the majority of my time right there in the city. There are other places I’d like to go in the general vicinity, other cities I’d like to visit, but time may prevent that from happening. It’s also a thing with me, if I’m traveling alone that I don’t like to just stay in one place or see only one country. Turkey would certainly allow me the opportunity to visit an entirely new continent (Asia) but the only other reasonable options are Greece and Bulgaria. I’d love to visit Greece but I think that’s really it’s own trip.

Herein lies the advantage of my second option. Spain is a big country, true, but it’s also got some great borders. Chances are if I’m going to Spain, I’m also going to take some time to visit Portugal as well. I consider that practically a given. In fact, I’d be inclined to fly into Lisbon and then travel to Spain from there.

Spain also has the distinct advantage of being close to southern France, which I could easily reach by train. Italy is a little further away, but would be easy enough as well. And if I want to be really adventurous, I can take a quick jaunt south to Morocco and get a new continent as well.

The travel opportunities are just scratching the surface of Spain’s appeal. At this point I probably know more German than any other non-English language but I can cover a few of the basics with Spanish as well, so there’s that. Spain also happens to have the second-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites after Italy, and has some fabulous cities to experience: Madrid, Barcelona, Toledo, Cadiz and Seville to name just a few. Then there’s the Mediterranean coast, the Atlantic Coast, and of course the close proximity of Lisbon and Portugal.

Like Turkey, the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) will be cooling in late September when I’d be visiting, but not so much that I couldn’t dress (and pack) lightly and still enjoy the beach if I want, to say nothing of exploring the nightlife without the need for a jacket.

Both countries would also provide excellent food and drink opportunities. I’ve loved tapas since my first experience in Britain. How great would it be to have tapas in its home country? I also love that lunch is considered to be the most important meal of the day there.

Like just about anywhere in Europe, Spain has its share of historic sites and regions. Cadiz, just to give an example, is regarded to be one of the oldest continuously-inhabited city in western Europe. Like France, Spain’s historical influences included celtic tribes but unlike much of the rest of Europe there’s a considerable amount of Moorish influence as well.

I don’t know so much about Portugal itself, but I’ve heard that the coast is beautiful and Lisbon is supposed to be an amazing city to visit. I probably wouldn’t spend a lot of time there but I’d have to at least visit Lisbon, and would try to either fly into or out of the city.

So Spain and Portugal are certainly high on my list and even if they’re not as exotic or adventurous as Turkey, I’d not be at all disappointed if I went there instead. The only real concern I have is that a week would not be enough. Hell, that’s true of anywhere. But there are worse things than falling in love with a country and wishing I could go back again.

Jade, amazing, supportive wife that she is, recently requested that I put together a list of ten places that I would be interested in going for my 40th birthday.

That would, of course, be the perfect gift for me. I’ve had friends who were thrown massive parties by their significant others to celebrate the big four-oh and I took Jade to Scotland for hers. Getting put on a plane to somewhere new and exciting, even by my lonesome, would be paradise.

Coming up with ten places is both easy and hard. I can close my eyes and name 10 countries or cities without any difficulty at all, and be certain that many of those choices would end up on a final, more carefully considered list. When it comes to considering my options, however, a lot of variables come into play.

The first and foremost for me (at the moment, at least) concerns the time. Ideally, I’d actually be at the exotic location on the day that I turn 40 so that I could celebrate it in proper fashion. This means considering what places are appropriate in late September.

That’s both good and bad. Good in that September is the beginning of the off season. Most places are no longer at their peak so they’ll be cheaper, more available and less crowded. It’s also the beginning of harvest for a lot of places in Europe, so there’d still be festivals, a feeling of celebration beyond my own more private one, and plenty of things to see and do.

In some places, however, the weather will already be turning cold and wet. Now I’ve been overseas five times in the last decade. Of those five trips, the 1st of them was in late May and early June (9 years ago!), one was in October, and all the rest were in November. I’ve taken clear advantage of off-season prices but I’ve also gotten rained on a lot, been forced to pack a lot more than I prefer due to the cold, and pretty much gotten used to the European world consisting of the colors of browns, blacks, and grays. And that’s to say nothing of the vastly limited number of daylight hours that remain in November. I like the night as much as anyone but it’s a little difficult to see the wonders of a strange new land without light.

Don’t get me wrong: each of those trips count as the highlights of my last decade, persisting in my memory, without question, as the best of times. But I’m tired of packing sweaters and jackets and gloves, and I’m really tired of grays. I’d like to see some greenery and life again. I’m less and less a fan of summer with each succeeding year but I think a part of that is that I almost never go anywhere once spring hits, and it’s starting to get to me.

So traveling in September, even late September, would be an excellent change of pace. Some parts of the world will still be getting cold and snowy, or rainy. Others are getting bedecked in the colors of fall while others will finally be cooling from the worst heat of summer.

Obviously, there’s much to keep in mind. I am making progress with my list, however, and am thinking of posting them here, with brief summaries of my thinking process in choosing them. It’ll give me a chance to think them through some more, and hopefully be a pleasant way to pass the time.

So keep watching this space!

1. 01/01 - Rickman, Phil: The Prayer of the Night Shepherd* - Okay, so I've actually been reading this one for months and had intended to finish it before the end of the year. That didn't quite work out and I only ended up reading about 45 pages on this first day of the new one.

Let me preface this summary by saying that I really enjoy Phil Rickman's books, especially these in the Merrily Watkins series. By and large I've enjoyed this first re-read but there's something about this particular book that makes it a slow read for me. I can't say why that is exactly, but I recall being slow the first time too. Add on the mounting inconvienance that comes of reading a book in hardcopy form as opposed to in e-book, and I end up taking about half a year to read this one book. It's still a good one; lots of interesting things about life on the Welsh/ English border, Arthur Conan Doyle's obsession with proving life after death and the constant struggles of the Watkins family. I definitely dug it, but I do tend to think it ran on a bit too long.

2. 01/04 - Gafla, Ofir Touche: The World of the End - So this is just a random book I found at the library that interested me. It was originally written in Hebrew by an Israeli writer and was translated to English a few years ago. It must have just been released over here or something because it was in the new fiction section.

Anyway, to briefly sum up: It's about a guy who lost his wife in a freak accident and decides to kill himself rather than go on. He wakes to find himself in the afterworld with his wife nowhere to be found. So he goes looking for her.

It's a very strange story, constructed in an unusual fashion and at times difficult to parse but I got caught up in it just the same. I'd say I liked it but I probably wouldn't read it again. Lots of interesting ideas and at least a few brilliant moments.

3. 01/07 - King, Stephen: Joyland - This was a shorter Stephen King story, published only in paperback and audio because it was intended as a Hard Case Crime novel of the old days. In truth, it was a Stephen King story, written with his characteristic voice, a coming of age type of story with a tinge of the supernatural. In other words, it was everything I look for in his work and I loved it.

4. 01/15 - Child, Lee: Echo Burning - This is the first Jack Reacher story that was slow going but after a while I eventually hit the good bits and flew right through it. It had the bonus of being set relatively near to Fort Stockton in Texas, one of the places I stayed when I was out there a couple of years ago. Now I totally want to get the next one in the series. C'mon, Amazon, lower the Kindle price for me!

5. 02/05 - Wilson, Robert Charles: Burning Paradise - This was a science fiction story about an alien lifeform(s) that manipulates the world for its own end, creating a world of relative peace and prosperity in the process, and those who sought freedom from that manipulation. It's a fascinating idea that I've given a lot of thought to in the past. I'm a big fan of Wilson but this wasn't one of my favorites of his novels. The life form didn't interest me a great deal and the human resistance seemed a little less complete in their characterizations. I enjoyed the book overall but I wasn't as impressed with it as I have been by other novels Wilson has written.

6. 02/22 - Edsel, Robert M.: The Monument Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History - Really good.

7. 03/10 - Child, Lee: Without Fail - Another fun Reacher novel, this one about the attempted assassination of a newly elected Vice-President. Reacher: Still badass, still beating the crap out of the bad guys. Good times.

8. 03/16 - Cornwell, Bernard: Agincourt - This was an interesting novel about the battle of Agincourt in 1415. It was historical fiction but it still did a great job of detailing the events of the battle. I found the beginning to be a bit slow and frustrating, due to the brutal realities of the time, which for some reason bother me more than they used to. I was particularly bothered by the motivations for battle and the useless squandering of so many lives for such futile gains. I still find history fascinating but the insane brutality of the human race disturbs me profoundly.

What bothered me even more, however, is how much I enjoyed the description of the battle itself when it finally began. One moment I'm disgusted by the brutality of humanity, and the next I'm thrilling to the details of that very brutality. It was so well depicted and so moving to actually experience some of the glory that people feel in battle (when they're winning at least). Cornwell truly is a master at the craft.

9. 05/10 - Child, Lee: Persuader - Yet another fun Reacher novel. This one was set in Maine, near a part of the state that I'd quite like to live. That was kind of neat. As usual, he was a crazy badass which I found totally satisfying to read.

10. 05/27 - Mayor, Adrienne: The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithridates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy - This was quite a well-written, engaging book, chock full of details while explaining how concrete those details might be. I was fascinated by it in large part because it reminds me of just how dangerous life was for everybody back at a time that is often romanticized more than it should be. I'm also fascinated by the Black Sea region, its history and culture and this book made me want to visit it all the more even while making me a little more frightened by the natural dangers. I wish I had a better memory for details...there's a ton of stuff that I probably didn't properly understand because I'd gotten distracted by all the names and dates. Most of all, this book made me ache for how much history has been lost.

11. 08/08 - Child, Lee: The Enemy - Another Jack Reacher novel, this one was actually a prequel. I'm not typically a fan of prequels but this was decent enough and had at least one surprising event that explained a lot about the character's present temperament. It took me a while to finish due to reading for the Hugos but I did enjoy it.

12. 09/13 - Anderson, Oak: Take One With You - I get a daily email advertising discounts for ebooks and this one was free. It's about a movement started online of suicidal people taking someone bad with them when they kill themselves. It's an interesting concept and the writer actually wasn't that bad but ultimately it was poorly executed and I thought the ending was pretty disappointing. I definitely wouldn't recommend it.

13. 09/23 - Gaiman, Neil, Pratchett, Terry: Good Omens* - I've read this a couple of times before, and always enjoyed it. This time I listened to it on Audible and quite enjoyed the reader. He did an excellent job voicing the cast. This is also the first time I've read the book since watching Supernatural, which made it especially entertaining. :)

14. 09/25 - Correia, Larry: Hard Magic Book 1 - This is the first novel of a trilogy (so far as I know). I read it because the third novel was nominated for a Hugo and as part of the Hugo packet this and the second novel were included. It took me a little while to get into this because, although I like alternate history with magic, Steampunk doesn't do a lot for me. Once I reached a certain point, however, it drew on me pretty hard. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit overall and thought he did a good job putting together a reasonable system of magic.

15. 09/30 - Grant, Mira: Parasite - I originally started reading this because it was nominated for a Hugo and the publisher provided the first few chapters in the reading packet for voters. I was intrigued enough to snag it when it went on a big sale on Amazon. There came a point, however, where all the characters were making such ridiculous decisions that I couldn't believe it, completely knocking me out of the story. Later there was a terrible scene that just annoyed the hell out of me, and by the end the idiocy of the main character irritated me so much that I have no real interest in reading any future novels in the series. Quite disappointing overall and I really can't understand how it got nominated for  Hugo.

16. 10/17 - King, Stephen: Mr. Mercedes - As always, this was a delightful read, though this wasn't quite as good as some of the others I've read in the last few years. It was more mystery than horror which wasn't as satisfying to me.

17. 10/18 - Dremousis, Litsa: Altitude Sickness - This is a just released book by a friend of Jade and I about the loss of her best friend and  partner to a mountain climbing accident. It's a powerful tribute to their relationship and her experience in grief, well-told with wit and emotion.

18. 10/26 - Elwes, Cary and Layden, Joe: As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride - This was just delightful. I enjoyed every bit of it. I wish there were a lot more books just like it.

19. 11/26 - Wolf, Maryanne: Proust and the Squid - This was a book about the science of reading that was fascinating. I quite enjoyed it and learned a lot.

20. 11/29 - Abraham, Daniel: The Tyrant's Law - This is the third of a series and probably the best of that series so far. It left me eager to read the next one. Abraham is an interesting writer. He's very good but his work isn't immersive...it's slow and lingering and takes time to fully take in. I think he's one of the best Fantasy writers out there right now, certainly of his generation but his books aren't easy to read. They are complex and that probably works against him.

21. 12/08 - King, Stephen: 11/22/63* - I loved this the first time and loved it every bit as much the second.

22. 12/14 - King, Stephen: Revival - I thought it was good, but surpisingly unsophisticated. It was a relatively relaxing King, as far as such things go.

23. 12/? - Konrath, J.A.: Origin - I really thought this was an interesting concept and the book was relatively short and very focused on the story it was attempting to tell. But the characters annoyed the hell out of me...I had no attachment to any of them, finding them one dimensional, boring and downright stupid. A lot of the conflict in the novel seemed to rely on the characters just being outright idiots; if they'd had any sense at all, none of the events that carried the story would have happened. That's not the kind of hook that works for me. I still read the whole thing though, because the writing was satisfactory and I was curious to see how events would be resolved. That, and I'm a glutton for punishment.

24. 12/29 - Wilson, Robert Charles: Spin* - 2nd read. Still brilliant.



* Denotes something I'd already read at least once before.

As a lifetime traveler I've developed a few quirks that makes it easier for me to travel on my own from time to time. It's not that I don't enjoy sharing a trip with others. I quite enjoy it, in fact, and I think I'm pretty easy to travel with in general. But when I'm going about things in my own way, I have my particular tendencies that don't exactly play well with others.

Lodging: This is as much a quirk of age as anything else, but I don't really like to go too cheaply with where I'm staying. It's an acquired taste, of course, for in my youth I was content to stay anywhere. I even slept on picnic tables back in the day. Now, however, I have certain standards. No hostels for me. I like internet access. I like a place that has been reviewed so I have a pretty good idea of what to expect. En suite bathrooms. Most of all, though, I want something that's at least near to where the action is. If I can't walk out of my hotel and into an area I'm interested in, its not to my full satisfaction. I'm willing to pay more for the walkability, which sounds strange when you consider how much I love to drive, but that's why this post is about quirks.

Food: When I'm traveling I love to experience the local cuisine. This is within reason, however. As a child I had a very limited palate. It's improved as I've gotten older but there are still unfortunate limitations. I prefer that whatever I'm eating comes from land rather than water, for example. I also prefer for the most part that it was breathing once upon a time. My appreciation for plant-life is almost as limited as that for sea. There are a few exceptions to that rule but by and large they're exceptions.

This doesn't mean that I don't experiment, however. One time in this lovely little town on the Atlantic coast of France, I ordered something that I thought would involve beef that turned out to be a fish. It was, fortunately, a filet of fish of some kind, and there weren't any anatomical features to specifically identify it but there was no question that it once lived in the ocean. I ate the whole thing and I even rather enjoyed it. It was unique and I appreciated it for the quality of the unexpected.

None of that is the quirky, part, however. This is: As much as I love to eat (and I really mean that) and as much as I look forward to the cuisine on any given trip, I never get to eat as much as I want. When I travel on my own, I usually only eat one main meal a day. Often I don't even do that, merely sampling various wares as I walk. This isn't my preference: I always dream of a nice breakfast at the hotel, a quick bite to eat for lunch, and an excellent restaurant for dinner. The problem is, I can't actually handle that much food. Generally speaking, if I eat one regular sized meal I can't eat much more than tidbits for the next 20+ hours. If I do eat more (and I often do when traveling with others) I always suffer for it. Sleeplessness, extreme discomfort, indigestion...I pay for it every time. This is something I would change if I could.

Activities: I alluded to this earlier, but when I've gone to a new town or city my favorite thing to do is to walk in it. This can sometimes be difficult: walking in Los Angeles, for example, isn't going to get you a lot outside of Hollywood Blvd and even that isn't exactly recommended too much. This could be part of why I love Europe so much. Most cities in Europe are imminently walkable. And if you get tired of a particular part of any given city, it's a piece of cake to hop on a train and go to another interesting section. I love it. I'd rather just spend the day walking around than hanging out in a museum, or a book store, or a show, or any of the hundreds of things people tend to do when they're traveling to interesting cities.

This is not to say that I don't go to museums or landmarks and enjoy them. I do. But my favorite part of those experiences are usually walking there. For example, I once spent six hours in Rome, my only trip to that amazing city so far. I saw Vatican City, the SIstine Chapel, the Pantheon, the Roman Forum and the Coliseum. And believe me, I loved every minute of my time there. I've wanted to go back ever since. The favorite part for me, however, was walking through the Roman Forum. It combined the best of everything: walking through the city (ancient ruins at that), steeped in history and never having to stand around or sit. Fabulous.

Go: Finally, when I'm traveling I want to spend as much time doing exactly that. I'm not the kind of guy who likes to go to a place and lounge around. I've been developing the sort of patience to do that and am much better about it than I used to be, but it's still a work in progress. For example, a lot of people like to go to beach. Generally, that involves lying around in the sun. Which is fun, as is swimming, but to me that's an activity for a couple of hours. It's not something that I particularly want to devote an entire vacation to.

When it's up to me, I travel to a place, walk around in it for a while, eat, sleep and then move on. Sometimes I skip the sleep part and just move on right away. Last year my trip to Europe involved seven countries in 9 days. In that time I visited ten cities. That was exactly how I liked it. If anything, I think I might have better enjoyed moving around a bit more and spending a little less time in a couple of the places I visited. I could have easily gotten another two countries and two or three cities.

One of my other favorite trips in the last few years is when I flew out to California and drove more than 2600 miles in ten days, spanning large chunks of California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Arizona. That time I didn't walk anywhere as much as I drove but I still loved every minute of it. There was always something else to see, somewhere else to visit or drive through. Another fond trip was the three days I spend driving around Texas with a brief jaunt into Oklahoma.

Out of context, I can see how this particular quirk of mine seems insane. I think it makes a fair amount of sense given everything else I've already mentioned but it's still a quirk. I haven't ever really met anyone who could keep up with me so when I travel with others it's a totally different experience. Still, left to my own devices, that's how I am. I'm all about the traveling and considerably less about the destination.