Five Places I Need to Revisit

You've decided to travel, go somewhere new. To immerse yourself in history. Or culture. Or food. Or sea and sun. Then you choose where and when to go. And when you arrive at your dream location? You have bad weather. Bad, BAD weather.

Good travelers don't let bad weather get them down. But it is obvious when better weather would have made for an improved trip.

FM's job takes much of the choice out of our travel. We are told where we are going and when. We are obliged to go when the work is ready. Which means we often end up traveling to places during off-season. We're pretty adaptable, FM and I. We enjoy traveling to new places and meeting new people. So even when the time is not the most opportune, we pretty much handle it. And sometimes the timing works out perfectly.

However, there have been a few places we missed out on a lot due to anticlimactic weather conditions. Places I really want to go back to and see and do more.

Dubrovnik, Croatia - FM was working in Macedonia and our trip was cut short by a month. Instead of changing our tickets, we FedEx'd 40 pounds of stuff home and looked for somewhere close to go. It was late February in the Balkans. The warmest place within reasonable cost/distance was the Adriatic Coast of Croatia. We choose Dubrovnik. For a month. And it snowed for the first time in 60 years. It was an amazing trip and an adorable city, and I really don't think I'd want to be there in the craziness of August, but the cold weather did inhibit us from traveling around the coast as much as we should have/would have/could have.

Rocha Coast, Uruguay - We arrived in Uruguay the end of their summer. For hanging out in Montevideo, the cooler temperatures really didn't bother us. But over Fourth of July weekend we rented a car and headed up the Rocha Coast. Most of the hotels and restaurants were closed (we scrambled trying to find places to stay), but the scenery was gorgeous! Many other activities were also weather prohibitive, including a boat trip to see the seals and an ATV ride around the dunes. 

Budapest, Hungary - Three months in Vienna allotted us much time for train travel around the area. We visited Bratislava, Munich, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Budapest and Prague. But the four days we spent in Budapest were pretty much in the rain. We did our best, but at some point you get tired of being soggy. Another four days would be wonderful. Or four weeks.

Kiev, Ukraine - What a beautiful city. But not when it's 30 below Fahrenheit.  Six weeks in January/February last year, during record low temperatures for the region. Snot freezing cold. Roads closed, schools closed. Scary driving conditions. Even scary walking conditions as snow and icicles fell from 8 story buildings onto the sidewalks. Brrrr.

Bali, Indonesia - On the other side of the equation we finally made it to Bali when it was sooooo hot even the locals were complaining. A walk along the beach at 10 pm caused us to break a big sweat. Our luxurious hotel room's air conditioning could not keep up with the energy sapping heat. When the weather finally broke, it was the Nyepi Holiday. We were told this was basically a 24 hour period of no power (in order not to attract bad spirits). It turned into more like 60 hours of sequester in a five star hotel. Blew our budget on food and drink and did not get to experience a lot of what we wanted to do. I need to return to experience the beauty of the Bali highlands and tolerably warm temperatures of the coast.

I would never say I regret any of these trips. As always, we had an amazing time and experienced much. Weather and timing do not have to be perfect in order to enjoy a destination, but when extremes are factored in, it does make you long for a re-trip. 

The question then becomes, do I want to go back or do I want a new experience? Tough call. 

Tourist or Traveler? Who Cares.

I've been known to read a travel blog or two in my life.  Recently, I tripped over an online debate about classifying yourself as a tourist or a traveler. 

Admittedly, I prefer the word traveler, but I am a tourist by definition.  It's not always so much about the sights and meals as it is about the people and the experience.  But sometimes, it IS about the sights, whether you're at the Great Wall of China or the Grand Canyon.  You need to see it if you happen to be in the neighborhood.  

Call yourself a tourist or a traveler, it really doesn't matter much.  There are as many different types of travelers as people.  Some refuse to leave their comfort zones while others embrace the less traveled path.  Others eat and drink their way through a new country while some stick only to the known (globalization makes this entirely too possible and reminds me of the Bubba Gump's in Depensar, Bali and the Applebee's on the Nile in Cairo - ugh).  

Still others research every option and meal for the perfect itinerary while some prefer to fly by the seat of their pants. Some people walk, some ride. Some want the beach, others prefer the mountains.  Some want to chill, others want to see everything possible.  Some are in search of inexpensive options while others enjoy posh hotels and trendy restaurants.  Some leave home for a month with a backpack and others need an entire bag just for shoes.

Because FM and I rarely get to choose our destinations, and our travel usually extends beyond the normal time allotted to just one city, we tend to be a mishmash of many different travel personalities, without even addressing our personal differences.  And, after thirteen years on the road even those preferences have changed, progressed, digressed and mutated into a convoluted crush of different methods.

Point being, there is no right or wrong way to travel, or any special classification that makes you any less of a visitor or more of an expert.  The important thing is to actually leave home once in a while and experience something new, whether it's the next county, city, country or continent.  

Because in the end we're all just visiting.