studentsineurope

Talk to Everyone: Getting the Most Out of Your Travel Experience

Traveling can be a solitary experience - tap into the stories all around you!

I don’t know about you, but I forget to talk to people. There’s a man who sits outside my favorite coffee shop with a sign: “I’m collecting stories. Tell me yours or just ask me why.” He sits there every night with his laptop, whatever the weather, and every time I pass by I think “he must be fascinating.” But I’m always desperate to get my coffee or desperate to get back to work (clutching my coffee). Have I ever talked to him? No.

Which is why travel is so wonderful. For a week or a month or a semester, I have nothing to worry about except making sure my backpack isn’t stolen. I have nowhere I need to be (I don’t like strict itineraries) and I’m usually alone. My life can be summed up in two words: I’m traveling. For that week or that month or that semester, I have plenty of time to listen.

Listening is what makes travel real. It doesn’t matter how many photographs you take; the stories you bring back will be infinitely more colorful. I once spent an hour talking to a homeless man in front of the Pantheon in Rome. He claimed he had traveled all over Italy and he closed his eyes as he described the cities I told him I was going to visit. Had he really seen them? Or was he escaping for a moment into a happier world in which a young woman found him fascinating? I gave him a euro before slipping away.

In Athens I talked to a couple of young soldiers standing in front of an embassy. Only one spoke English and he described how he and the other soldier were steadfast friends: “if one of us has money, we both have money. If there’s a pretty girl in the bar, we don’t sit down unless there are two pretty girls.” He repeated this in Greek to his friend, who smiled and nodded emphatically and then disappeared. He returned a couple of minutes later, bringing ice cream for all of us.

In Sorrento I discovered a locavore restaurant in the corner of an alley. I ordered organic pasta with ricotta, zucchini, and mint and ended up talking about hiking with the waiter, who recommended a nearby national park that was one of his favorites – he even gave me a map. Then the chef came out of the kitchen to ask if I liked my lunch and I asked him about sustainable cuisine in Italy (and told him the pasta needed a little more mint).

In Turkey I talked with a British woman who had a Turkish boyfriend. She couldn’t get a permanent visa until they were married, so she had to leave the country every three months to renew her tourist visa. She would return to England, acquire some British pounds (stabler than Turkish lira at the time of my visit), and fly back to Turkey, purchasing the right to another few months with her boyfriend.

Sometimes people surprise you: an older man in traditional garb who tells you about skype-calling his daughter in London. A matronly lady in an Irish shop who suggests you buy lace thigh-high stockings. Or the man at the bar staring at you who turns out to be a painter and invites you to his gallery. Traveling is a chance to experience the world in more ways than monuments and museums. Take the time to listen to the people you meet, and don’t write them off because you think they might not speak English. Laptop or no laptop, people’s stories are worth collecting: they will be the lightest souvenir you acquire, and the most authentic.