Travel diary: How I found acceptance in a Spanish hospital

by Gadling Staff on

Avid travelers wear the title of “wanderer” like a badge of honor.

I know I do – I never completely related to my peers in my small Nebraska hometown. My brain was always dreaming, always scheming for ways to create the life I wanted – and that didn’t include Nebraska.

I fell in love with Spain as a teen – the architecture and culture drew me in with its passionate allure and never let go. It seemed only natural that I’d spend a semester studying there.

I sent for my student visa, packed my bags and traveled to the Alhambra-lined horizon of Granada, Spain, in early 2004.

“You’re living with Senora Cordon,” the director told me as we arrived one rainy January night. My host mother — a plump Spanish woman with perfectly-coifed blond hair and dozens of leopard-print scarves – was genuinely interested in my well-being. So far, so good.

My elation soon turned into a routine of class, class and more class. The school, an offshoot of the Universidad de Granada, was filled with American students — not exactly the multicultural experience I envisioned.

[Photo: Flickr/*CezCze* (off-line)]
I started to feel isolated — I wasn’t connecting with fellow students, a problem I chalked up to being shy. Many of my classmates partied nightly; I opted for shopping at El Corte Ingles.

I was unhappy – sad that my experience wasn’t turning into the supreme adventure I envisioned, sad that I was wasting the opportunity.

Sad until I woke up one morning with a decision: I had to make the most of my time in Spain and find a way to connect with the country. I soon happened on a volunteer opportunity with Hospital Materno Infantil Virgen de las Nieves, a dusty and run-down hospital perched high above Granada.

The hospital treated children with cancer and it was our job to entertain them. Each Tuesday I made the 30-minute walk and took the elevator up several floors until I was greeted by young laughter. Language barriers kept us from fluently communicating, but tea sets and toy trucks had a way of bridging the gap.

The young faces were familiar each week – until my final visit. A new boy, tiny and timid, stood out.

I felt an immediate connection to him and we spent much of the hour-long session coloring. Afterward, I walked into the hallway as he followed. His parents were in the hallway and I immediately recognized them as Gitanos, or Gypsies with Romani ancestry. Gitanos are generally not well liked, thanks to their lingering reputation as pickpockets – so that explained some of his playroom apprehension.

He walked over and whispered something to his parents and they looked at me with wide-eyes and shy smiles. I returned the smile and their appreciation.

Walking home that night I realized something: We’re all searching for acceptance, no matter what language we speak or customs we follow. I found acceptance from that small family.

Do I feel completely accepted now?

No, but that’s why I travel: I end up finding a piece of myself in each place I visit.

Luggage: A brief history

by McLean Robbins on

Luggage, often referred to as “baggage” or “suitcases” is a term coined in 1596, from lug (v.) “to drag;” so, lit. “what has to be lugged about” (or, in Johnson’s definition, “any thing of more bulk than value”). In 20c., the usual word for “baggage belonging to passengers.”

For more than six hundred years, people have used traveling cases, steamer trunks valises, portmanteaus, briefcases, weekenders and the now ubiquitous rolling case to get their goods from point A to point B.

As lover of history, I’ve always been fascinated by luggage – many homes in my native DC have strange small “bedrooms,” (which can’t be referred to as such because they lack windows and closets) that were once housing for the owner’s trunks. I took a steamer trunk to college, only to find that it didn’t even come close to fitting in my shoebox of a dorm room. My greatest desire? A vintage Louis Vuitton case – and an appropriate wardrobe (and private jet ) to carry it.

So for this edition of “The Way We Traveled,” check out this brief timeline of luggage factoids:

1153 – The first wheeled luggage appears in Palestine and was used to carry weaponry and equipment.

1851 – Queen Victoria awards Prince Albert three gold medals for his Travelling Carry-All Omni-Conveyance, Bewheele.

1854 – Louis Vuitton as we know it was born, initially specializing in luggage.

1910 – Samsonite launches.

1970 – Briggs & Riley introduces modern “wheeled” luggage, offering four wheels and a rope tow.

1972 – U.S. Luggage patents wheeled luggage.

1989 – A Northwest Airlines pilot becomes the first person to carry wheeled luggage

1994 – Don Ku was granted a patent for wheeled suitcase with a collapsible towing handle.

2006 – A ban on liquids over 3 oz. in carry-on luggage is announced.

Late 2000s – Airlines begin charging bag fees for checked luggage on domestic flights.

2013 – The date when the proposed ban on liquids in carry on luggage will be reversed in the EU.

*This article was updated to reflect additional information about wheeled luggage on March 2, 2011.

Travel agents: The dinosaur you just might need

by Chris Owen on


A long time ago, in a travel world far away, you needed a printed ticket to get on an airplane and you probably got it from a travel agent. Now you buy online and there is no ticket, just a number. Not all that long ago, you needed special printed travel documents to go on a extended land or cruise vacation and you picked them up at your travel agent’s office. Now you don’t need those either and you probably don’t visit your travel agent’s office very often, if you even have one. Then, traveling meant being prepared with a trip to the library, book store and travel agency office for information . Now we click our way to expert status without leaving home.

We can easily book most travel options without a travel agent. That’s a fact. The big question though is: Should we?

These days about the only place you’ll find an airline ticket is on American Idol when when hopefuls get sent along to Hollywood. Travel agents still issue them but now it is mostly as a courtesy to clients too busy to do it on their own or as part of a package. Today, we can select the airline we want, when we want to fly and even a seat assignment, all online. Other types of travel as well, from land vacations to cruises, have been made available to click-and-book.

Where travel agents have the most visible value is being there for travelers when something goes wrong. But that does not happen all that much so those who are comfortable with the click-and-book method accept the risk.

More commonly, travel agents can offer great value that travelers could not get on their own.

That value may translate to lower prices, complementary upgrades, bonus amenities when traveling and other good things down the line, after booking. That “after booking” part is the unknown, difficult-to-measure factor that eludes many travelers.

Odds are up-front pricing on many elements of a travel purchase will be the similar or the same from one source or agent to another. Even compared to the service provider, be that an airline, car rental agency, tour company or cruise line, pricing is similar.

Or so it seems.

That similarity in price may be misleading and causes those with even a minimal online booking comfort level to think or say “What do I need this middleman for? I can do this myself.”

True, today we can do it ourselves. Do we save money? In the long run, probably not. Anything we can find online, travel agents can find too. They can also monitor pricing, economic, social or weather-related concerns that might affect your travel.

The big advantage of a travel agent today is very much like it was years ago, it just comes in different forms.

Your good travel agent will have all the information you need to make the most of your vacation. That may be as simple as sending along links to critical websites, basic but required literature on destinations or merely making sure all the T’s are crossed and the I’s dotted.

More importantly, your travel agent considers the act of booking the beginning of the transaction, not the end like the result of click-to-book methods. Once you have paid, you are done with the click-to-book way. Now all you have to do is make it to the airport on time for that flight and that is the end of it.

In today’s world, prices, availability and even the nature of travel are changing at a rapid pace. Websites update pricing and availability but offer little or no hope of passing new benefits available after the sale along to travelers. Click-to-book methods are pretty much done with you after payment is made.

Travel agents work on building or maintaining an ongoing business relationship with you and are easily accessible. Try emailing, tweeting or calling your click-to-book website.

Should your plans change, should you have questions or should you want to know more about where you are traveling and how you are getting there, your agent is just a phone call, email or tweet away.

A travel agent is “your friend” in the travel business. They are your friend who knows what is going on in the travel industry. They can put that information together with their knowledge of you for a winning combination that will reap huge rewards in the long run.

Need to book a quick business flight and be done with it? Click-to-book. Doing any actual traveling where memories, experiences, sights and sounds might be important? See a travel agent.

Flickr photo by Ivan Walsh

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3 great ways to make your travel agent hate you

by Chris Owen on

Having a good travel agent in your pocket can gain you real advantages from booking to sailing on a cruise vacation. If you are lucky enough to have found and established a relationship with a Cruise Expert, an agent who specializes in cruises only, all the better. It’s an ongoing process to be sure, one that aims at building a long-term business relationship that will benefit you for years to come.

A good agent, with your best interests in mind, can gain you lower pricing and greater value down the line. Your click-to-book agency or even the cruise lines themselves will not even come close to talking about something like that. Complementary upgrades, bonus onboard amenities and quick access to good information are just some of the benefits you can gain.Finding one of those great agents is one thing. Keeping them interested in you like they might be interested in the travel plans of a close family member is another. Here are some great ways to make your travel agent hate you. Avoid these

  1. Ask “I want to go on a cruise. Whatcha got?” Do a little homework. At any given time there are zillions of possiblities for sailings all over the world. Try to narrow it down to a hemisphere.
  2. Start a conversation with “I heard on CruiseCritic that…” CruiseCritic.com is the premiere website for all things cruising. Message boards there have a lot of useful information. God does not write what you read on the message boards though so don’t place wagers based on information you get from member IKnowEverythingAboutCruises
  3. Start a conversation with “Here are the prices my online cruise broker gave me, can you beat these?” You might as well holler “If somebody else comes along that’s $20 cheaper I will drop you like a hot potato so don’t invest a lot of time in me”

A good cruise expert is an invaluable resource but one that takes a little time to get the most out of. It’s an ongoing process built on trust, loyalty and courtesy. If you feed your travel agent dirt odds are you won’t get diamonds in return.

You want this person to love you.

You want them to think of you as their brother, sister, mom or dad and have a personal commitment to you right along those lines. That does not mean you should accept anything less than flawless arangements and excellent value. All things considered, your travel agent should afford you easy to see advantages over booking any other way. There should be no doubt about it. If there is, you have either unrealistic expectations or the wrong “expert” in your pocket.



Flickr photo by Jorge Quinteros

Top five travel gadgets NOT to take on your next trip (and what to pack instead)

by Sean McLachlan on


I’m in the throes of packing for a two-month journey to Ethiopia. I try to pack light, other than the inevitable pile of books. While some tech freaks pack a lot of travel gadgets, I find these to be more of a hindrance than a help. Here are five things that you might want to leave behind if you’re heading out for some adventure travel.

GPS
Yes, these are handy, but they can break with rough handling and are very attractive to thieves.
What to bring instead: A compass. It’s cheaper, much less likely to break or be stolen, and with a good map is just as useful. It also makes you notice the terrain more and become more aware of the lay of the land.

Ereader
Ebooks certainly save space, and many travelers like ebooks, but ereaders are far more stealable than some tattered old paperback. Plus you need to recharge your device and you can’t give or exchange books with the locals.
What to bring instead: A paperback or three. Preferably something you don’t mind trading or giving away.

IPod
Music is fun to have on the road, but it cuts you off from the sounds around you. I want to hear the muezzin’s call, the chatter of foreign languages, the local tunes blasting from shops and cafes. My playlist is part of my life back home, so I don’t need it while I’m away. I can listen to it when I get back.
What to bring instead: Nothing.Translation software
Translation software has improved a lot in recent few years. There’s even Word Lens, an iPhone app that overlays English onto foreign writing. When Jeremy Kressmann visited me in Madrid earlier this month we tried it on a menu. It was impressive but didn’t translate some of the culinary terms. I prefer learning a language the old-fashioned way. Except for France, all of the 31 countries I’ve visited are filled with people who want to help you learn their language. What better way to hook up with locals?
What to bring instead: A good dictionary and phrasebook. Also pack a good attitude.

Laptop
To be honest, I do take a laptop on some of my trips, but not on an adventure. My laptop means work, and while part of my work is travel writing, the best way for me to do that job is to focus on what’s going on around me. Computers can be a huge distraction and you always have to worry about them getting stolen or blasted by a power surge. If you do take your laptop to a developing country, pack a voltage regulator.
What to bring instead: A notebook and pen. Don’t worry, even Ethiopia has Internet cafes.

If there’s a theme to this, it’s that all of these gadgets distract you from the place and people you’re visiting. Doing without them for a month or two can be a welcome break, and your trip will be richer because of it. I didn’t need any of these things twenty years ago when I started doing adventure travel, and I don’t need them now that they exist.

[Photo courtesy user rkzerok via Gadling’s flickr pool]