The most enjoyable, rewarding and memorable moments of my life have always involved other people. – “The Best Part”
I reckon my travel habits probably seem odd or even boring to many people; I don’t generally go to see the sights or touristy things in places I visit, and when I do I generally prefer the more off-the-beaten-track ones rather than the ones that demand both admission and standing in long queues. When I travel, I like to spend as much time as possible doing things the locals consider quite ordinary, such as eating local foods or just walking around the streets or countryside. And nearly every time I visit a new place, I discover several new foods I like and learn new ways of doing things. On this trip I discovered haggis, Stornoway black pudding, stroopwafels, and a flat wine I actually like (generally, I only like sparkling wines). But I don’t just stumble on these things by accident; I try them because either my traveling companion or someone I meet recommends them to me and takes the time to tell me why they think I’ll like them. As I’ve written on several occasions, it’s my traveling companions and the people I meet and talk to who are the best part of travel for me:
I’ve met a lot of people in [my life]. I’ve talked with them, argued with them, loved them, and fought with them. I’ve hired them to do jobs and been hired by them; I’ve fucked them, been fucked over by them, played with them and feared them. I’ve learned from them, taught them, helped and been helped by them, ignored them, missed them and avoided them and done many other things far too numerous to list. And for the majority of my adult life, I’ve made my living by interacting directly with them on a one-on-one basis…I can open the vault of memory and find a wealth of experiences from months, years and decades in the past; I can see their faces, hear their voices and even tell you where we were and what we talked about. Some of the people with whom I had these treasured interactions are still dear friends, and some I haven’t seen in many years; many of them were with people I met only once, and whose names I have long forgotten. And many others fall somewhere between those two extremes…
This trip was no exception; I met, talked to and otherwise interacted with lots of people I didn’t know before, some by introduction from Brooke and some just by circumstance (the festival at Hay-on-Wye was very fruitful in the latter respect). I’ll probably never cross paths with most of them ever again, and others may grow into friends. But as usual, the memory of many of those meetings will outlast most of the other experiences of the trip.
