Monthly Archive: December 2015

My Top Ten Travel Moments of 2015

It’s that time of year again! The holidays are flying by, the new year is fast approaching, and “Best of” lists are everywhere.

2015 was a good year for me in terms of travel. I visited two new countries (Thailand and Iceland), as well as a new US city, Seattle. I also got to do some work-related traveling (more to come next year, hopefully!), and spent time with friends and family scattered across the country. I have even bigger plans for next year, but that’s a story for a different blog post (coming soon!)

In the meantime, let me present my “Top Ten Travel Moments of 2015”, in no special order:

Temple Hopping and Massages in Bangkok: This year I made my first-ever visit to Southeast Asia, which means, of course, temples! I was very excited to see Bangkok’s Grand Palace and other historical spots, but when the day finally came, we had masses of tourists and 102 degree weather to contend with. I don’t think I’ve ever drunk so much water in one morning in my life! But there was a saving grace: at Wat Pho, the temples included a massage pavilion, where my friend and I (gratefully) sat down in the cool room and paid about $9 for an excellent foot massage. As magnficent as the temples were, I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t the highlight of the day.

Pike Place Market in Seattle: Oh, how I love markets! I’d been hearing about Pike Place for years, and when I got there in May, it didn’t disappoint. We whiled away several hours looking at the food and flower stalls and trying all the samples of hot cider and cheese that we could squeeze in…and I was happily surprised when the cheese-and-fruit plate I purchased on my plane ride home included the exact same sharp cheddar from the store I’d discovered in my wanderings that day. Delicious!

Gulfoss Waterfall in Iceland: I love waterfalls even more than markets (well, it may depend on how hungry I am at the time), and Gulfoss is without question the most spectacular waterfall I’ve ever experienced. A must-see site if you make it to Iceland (which you absolutely should).

Lunch view in Phuket: I’ve written here about my splurge spa day on the Andaman Coast in Thailand, but honestly, as amazing as the massage and facial treatments were, the view at lunch (and the chance to enjoy it in solitude before other diners showed up) was one of the best moments of my Thailand trip, and of my entire year. I mean, just look at it! Serenity now….

Oddfellows Brunch in Seattle: I enjoyed my trip to Seattle more as a chance to relax, unwind, and experience the vibe of the city rather than a frantic attempt to sightsee. So it probably shouldn’t be surprising that one of my fondest memories of my trip is….brunch! Brunch at Oddfellow’s Café was pretty spectacular…my bacon, egg and cheese biscuit was the best I’ve ever had, the drinks were interesting concoctions, and they even tossed in organic greens to make me feel a bit better about my food choices that day. Winning all around.

The Blue Lagoon, Iceland: Everything you hear about the Blue Lagoon is true. It may be touristy, and it can get crowded (go early in the morning like I did to avoid this), but it is a truly magical place to soak, unwind, and be in the moment. Next time I return to Iceland, it’s the first place I’ll go back to: a once-in-a-lifetime type experience that I can’t wait to repeat.

New York City restaurants: I started a new job this year that has me traveling to New York fairly often. I’ve never been a fan of the city (and full disclosure, that hasn’t changed yet), but I am willing to acknowledge it has some of the best restaurants in the world…I really haven’t had a bad meal there yet. Some of my favorites are an outstanding Thai place a friend took me too, whose name I’ve sadly forgotten, and the legendary Blue Smoke, a Southern/BBQ style restaurant I’ve visited twice and loved both times. Yum!

Reykjavik: I fell in love with this fun, compact, walkable city this year. Reykjavik rocks, plain and simple. Great food, wonderful cafes, fantastic shopping, easy to navigate, and the architecture and vibe call to mind Central European cities where I spent a lot of time when I lived in Europe years ago. I can’t wait to go back.

Cape Cod Beach Time: My aunt and uncle live in Cape Cod, and as a kid my family would go there every summer and every Thanksgiving to visit, so I have lots of wonderful childhood memories playing on the local beach near their home. This year I went back for Thanksgiving for the first time in years, and it was wonderful: seeing family and spending time on the beach again. As much as I love summer, cool falls days filled with sunshine are a great time to visit New England beaches, and the day we went the weather was absolutely perfect; the sky and ocean were the bluest I’ve ever seen them. Traveling to far-flung places is wonderful, but sometimes it’s equally delightful and satisfying to revisit your roots.

Great Falls, Virginia: I figured I’d end this list with something a little closer to home. This fall, I decided to take up hiking as a hobby, and jumped at the chance to join in on a group trek to Great Falls in Virginia. During the two hour hike, I scrambled over rocks, walked through peaceful green forests, took more photos than I can count—and oh yes, saw a spectacular waterfall. You don’t have to travel halfway around the globe for adventure (though naturally, I won’t let that fact stop me from continuing to do so).

Here’s to another great year of travel, discovery, and adventures in 2016!

Have you been to any of these places? What did you think? What were some of your best 2015 travel moments?

Asia, Iceland, Thailand, Travel Musings, US travel

Dec

2015

The Things I Miss Most About London

Melissa Kaplan0

Last week, I was partaking in one of my annual holiday traditions: watching Love, Actually while drinking hot chocolate and writing Christmas cards. This movie is one of my favorite holiday-themed films (don’t judge, haters), and it never fails to get me in the yuletide spirit.

But more than that, watching Love, Actually again made me nostalgic for London, a city I was lucky enough to call home for a year that was probably the best one of my life. London is the setting for (and plays almost the role of a character in) the movie, and looking at the famous landmark sights, the streets decked out for Christmas, and the double-decker red buses made me reflect on how much London means to me, and what I miss about living there.

So here goes: My list of “Top Things I Miss About London”:

Pubs and pub quizzes. I love pubs in London far more than bars in America—they’re so warm, welcoming, friendly and, in many cases, classy. I miss being able to walk in and order a Pimms and a cottage pie with chips and gravy (this combo needs to catch on in America, fast). And I used to have a ritual of participating in a Monday night pub quiz with my cousin and her friends at a pub near Piccadilly Circus…we never won, but the attempt was always a blast!

Bookstores. London is chock-full of bookstores, both chains and unique historical outlets, but my absolute favorite is Stanford’s, the travel bookstore. That’s right: an entire bookstore devoted to travel! Not only does it contain every guidebook you could ever want, but it’s also filled with maps, globes, and travel literature, both fiction and non-fiction. I was a regular customer at Stanford’s when I lived in London, and God, do I miss it. Nothing in the US can compare.

Museums. Sure, I live in Washington DC now, one of the world’s foremost museum cities, so I’m hardly deprived in this regard, and I do love DC’s museums. But that doesn’t prevent me from occasionally getting nostalgic for all those London has to offer. How amazing would it be to be able to pop round to the British Museum right now and take in millennia’s worth of history for free? Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, take your pick; it’s all there. And I miss the National Gallery too; there’s nothing like spending an afternoon surrounded by famous artwork only to step out of the museum doors onto Trafalgar Square in the heart of one of the world’s most energetic and exciting cities.

Curry. Damn, how I miss curry. Yes, we have a good Indian restaurant up the street from my house, but that’s a world away from being able to take the tube to Brick Lane and wander up and down the street full of curry vendors all competing for your business, and knowing that pretty much anywhere you choose to eat will be superb. Plus, I miss being able to order curry at my house for dinner. I don’t believe I ordered a pizza in the entire year I lived in England, but I ordered curry all the time with my roommates to devour while watching Britain’s Next Top Model. Oh, I miss that too.

Public Transport. And speaking of the tube…I miss being able to arrive on a subway platform and know that a train will be arriving in no less than four minutes. I don’t think I ever waited longer than that at my stop on the Piccadilly line, whereas coming home from a night out the other day in DC, I arrived at the station only to find the next train wasn’t due for 20 minutes. On a Friday night. God, I miss London efficiency. And those bright red double-decker buses too—I didn’t ride them that often but I loved it when I got a chance to, especially sitting on the top level and watching all of the city unfold at my feet below.

Londoners. This may seem like a bit of an odd choice, as London isn’t necessarily known as a warm and fuzzy city on par with some others. But personally, I loved London and the people who live there. They’re friendly, but not pushy. They’re polite and patient (no shoving to get onto the tube, even at rush hour), and they respect personal space, both physical and mental. I love being among people who can be friendly and kind without feeling the need to chat up every stranger with incessant small talk for no particular reason. That probably says more about me than it does about London, but honestly, in that way, I felt like London and I understood one another very well. Living in the city felt like coming home, and visiting there still does.

Here’s to a return trip in 2016!

Have you spent time in London? Do you love it too? What do you miss the most from the city?

London

Dec

2015

The Importance of Travel Dreams

Melissa Kaplan0

A few months ago, I almost booked a trip to an exotic new-to-me country. It was a whimsical idea, born largely of romantic impulse. I hadn’t had this particular country on my radar until recently, and it doesn’t appear on my bucket list. Still, it had suddenly captivated me, and I thought it would be worth checking out.

At the last minute, however, I decided against it. Or rather, I decided to delay. The complexities involved in traveling at that particular moment were too overwhelming to make the trip worth it; the timing was off.

Although I was disappointed at not getting to take a new country by storm, one thing consoled me: I now had it to look forward to in the future. (Hopefully within the next year or so, if all goes according to plan).

What’s the point of this near-miss travel adventure story? It got me thinking that, as much as I love traveling, it sometimes feels like I enjoy the anticipation even more. I love discovering new cities and countries, making real to myself places that before I visited were only photos on Instagram and lines on a map.

But at the same time, I can’t help but notice that, after I’ve been there, these places lose a bit of luster in my memory. I often look back fondly (“What a great city that is”), or even in rapture (“That trip was AMAZING! Most beautiful beach in the world!”). But a country or locale never quite has the magical hold of the unknown again. You can’t un-experience a place you’ve been to; it will always be part of your past now, rather than your future.

The Bucket List Trap

In a way, I think this phenomenon ties into the whole issue of bucket lists.

For years, I felt a nearly frantic need to check off certain places from my personal must-see list, to the point where I felt I couldn’t tackle other major life milestones until I’d visited them. The world beckoned to me, it called me from long distances and seduced me with the allure of the new and the unfamiliar. I HAD to get out and explore all of it before I settled into “adult” life. Otherwise, I’d be selling my dreams short.

As the years passed, however, I realized something both wonderful and disconcerting: my bucket list was only getting longer and my desire to see the world more intense as I grew older. For every city or country I checked off after years of anticipation, three more popped up to take its place. Travel, and planning my life as a traveler, began to take on an almost desperate quality. I cannot rest until I’ve seen this place. I must scratch this amazing site off my list before I can move forward. I must chase this rainbow before I settle into official, duty-bound adulthood.

I began to be afraid that I’d never be able to see all the things I wanted to in my lifetime, and that this would lead to one of two outcomes: 1) I’d have to pull the plug on travel before I was ready in order to “settle down,” and always feel resentful of it; or, 2) I’d never manage to settle down at all, because there was always some new destination calling to me. I’d spend my life chasing those rainbows, and never accomplishing any other dreams for myself.

I’m not sure which possibility scared me more.

I have friends who never travel at all. I have other friends who travel occasionally, or whose bucket lists only contain one or two places. In a weird way, I almost envy these people at times. Travel is one of the most amazing, rewarding experiences a person can have in this world; I believe this with every ounce of my being, and that’s what drives me to keep on exploring. But sometimes I can’t help but think how much easier my life would be if I wasn’t always putting off other things I want into the future so that I can travel somewhere today, or tomorrow, or in the next five years. Wouldn’t that life be simpler? In the end, might such an attitude enable me to accomplish more non-travel-related goals and dreams?

The Value in Postponing Adventure

But as I’ve thought all this over more and more lately, I’ve realized a few things. For one, while I firmly believe in seizing travel opportunities and being proactive about seeing the world because it’s not going to come to you, I’ve also begun to understand that, in the wise words of my dad, the world isn’t going anywhere. India will still be there to dive into, whether I do it next year by myself, in a decade with young children in tow, or in thirty years as a retiree. I don’t have to see my life as such a frantic rush to the travel finish line, because there is no finish line until the very end. And with some effort and ingenuity, I can still see a lot of the world before then.

And I’ve realized something else; sometimes, as cliché as it seems, anticipation really is half the fun. As much as I love making my travel dreams come true, I need some of them to stay dreams—at least for now. Part of what makes travel magical is imagining how incredible it will be when you discover your next rainbow–whether it’s lighting up the sky over a waterfall in Iceland, or the Scottish Highlands, or the mountains of Machu Picchu.

I can’t live without travel, but I also can’t live without travel dreams: the anticipation of what that far-flung destination you’ll make it to “someday” will bring. I need to keep some of my dreams safely in the future, where I can unfold them when the time is right.

Someday–perhaps in just a few months–I’ll make it to the country I almost flew to this summer. In the meantime, I’ll keep dreaming, planning, and anticipating. And I’ll be happy that I still have one more dream destination awaiting its turn to be discovered.

Travel Musings

Dec

2015