Photo: This shot was taken along the Appian Way/Via Appia Antica in Rome, Italy. In the foreground, a road paved with large black stones, in the near distance, a pair of legs traversing the way. The ancient road, built around the 4th century, has large interlocking stones of basalt - a glossy black rock, and provided navigation for people, carts, commerce, and trade. It still does. Sometimes the simplest things last forever.
A friend recently quipped that her favorite part of travel is the people she meets during the journey. Indeed, the way you meet fellow travelers, helpful locals, and experience chance encounters is often legendary and lasting.
When I was a baby, my parents took an epic trip, overland from London, home to Sri Lanka in a camper-van. They met the Balboul family in Bethlehem, Jordan. A Muslim family, the Balbouls, had come to frolic at the salty Dead Sea at the weekend. My parents visited because it was a holy site for Christians. Their children - two school-age girls and a baby about the same age as me, were the common ground and the tending to, and watching of, children transcended language, culture, and formed immediate bonds. The Balbouls insisted that my parents stay with them, in their home, meeting their loved ones and feasting on their family's favorite foods. They ended up staying for three days, and even then their hosts were sorry to see them go. They kept in touch with annual holiday cards until a few years before my father passed away as Mr Balboul had also died.
When our children were young, we were fortunate to make a trip to England and Paris. It was our first international trip as a family and came about due to the proceeds of a small retirement account I cashed out early. Best return on investment, ever.
We were connected through a friend of my parents to a family living in the center of Paris. We intended to meet them at the train station and have them direct us to a decent, and economical, hotel. When they arrived to greet us, they insisted that we stay with them rather than in a soulless, overpriced hotel. We did so, with a little trepidation - mainly from the idea of inconveniencing them so. But the meeting turned out to be amazing - they showed us a side of Paris that would never have been found in a travel guide: a several-course homemade traditional French dinner, replete with bottle after bottle of wine and complete from des œufs to des noisettes. They drove us around Paris at night to see the Champs Elysees and the Eiffel Tower flooded with lights. We took with us, as we explored the city and visited the Cathedral of Notre Dame the next day, delicious tuna sandwiches they made for us on fresh baguettes from the boulangerie on the corner. We still keep in touch with them for holiday greetings.
If there were some way to pay them back (that they would accept), we would have gladly done so. But such things are better left to pay forward.
On that same trip, we sat near a young man on the train heading back to London. He had lived in Austin, where we were from, and we got to talking, comparing notes about our home town and his travels there. We shared a bottled beer, some bread and cheese with him.
A few years ago on a trip to Seattle to visit our son Josh and his hubby James, we stayed in the Airbnb home of a couple whom we immediately bonded with. They reminded us of friends back in Hamilton and we had long talks, in the late evening or early morning, drinking wine or coffee and recounting the day's adventures. After only a handful of days, we felt like we'd known them for years. Now any visit to Seattle means we get to see them too.
The great philosopher Shirley MacLaine once said, "The more I traveled, the more I realized fear makes strangers of people who should be friends." Yes, it is true that being too trusting can lead to trouble, but if you rely on your instincts and be aware of sketchy offers, you may end up with more than snapshots and postcards, for the best souvenirs are glorious memories of people who have gone out of their way to show you their hometown, or share their culture. There's nothing quite like a local to show you what life is like in their part of the world. There's no tourist attraction or landmark that can even compare to the joy of connecting to people who will show you the way that ordinary lives entwine with the most extraordinary places. Then, when you meet a traveler in your hometown, it becomes that easy to give them a taste of your culture - and you'll get to pay it forward.
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