Jul 13, 2016

Arriving - the best part of travel

Arriving is the best.
When you are a large traveler, like yours truly, much of the travel is a hassle. Small seats, small ailes, small toilets, small meals... You name it, I face it. The time in the air is usually the worst part of the travel. Land travel is not so bad, as long as it is on a train or in a decent-sized car. They are at least built for traveling with some accesories. Buses and trams are made for everyday travel, not traveling with luggage. Hence the smaller space.

Sitting on a plane seat made for a person half my weight, is an ordeal, to say the least. On travels which take more than 5 hours, I usually have to stand up several times and walk for half an hour or plan a lot of trips to the toilet, in order to being able to feel my legs. Or I take a painkiller. I have devised a number of ways to relieve the pains of sitting all the time.

Arrival 
But the best part of all travel, is to arrive at your destination. Whether or not it is Las Vegas, Berlin, Cork, Santiago de Chile, Jakarta, Tenerife, Paris, the feeling of being somewhere you have never been before, is always exciting. Getting your bearings, checking if Lonely Planet's advices are correct, fighting with taxi drivers or finding the cheapest means of transport to your apartment or hotel, that gets my heart racing just thinking about it. I love that part of the travel.


The subway in Moscow.
I remember arriving in Moscow, on our return from Iran in 2002. We had a couple of nights to stay with friends in Moscow, but we did not connect on the phone, so it was hard to know what to do. We checked the taxi rates to the center, but waaay to expensive. We ended up taking the advice from a taxi driver to go to a nearby hostel and stay there one night, and then call our friends again the next morning. My Russian was adequate and we got a cheap solution for the night. And my first taste of Perrier, by the way. Memorable.


What part of the travel is your favourite?

No comments:

Post a Comment