From the monthly archives:

October 2009

Visual Icebreaker

by Keith on October 14, 2009 · 5 comments

We are choosing to stay in hostels for most of our trip for two reasons. The first is our budget. Hostels are more affordable than hotels in many of the places we are traveling. And the only differences I have found between a hotel and hostel room is that there is no TV or phone, two things we are not using often on this trip. The other reason is that staying in hostels increases our chances of meeting and interacting with other travelers. Whether they are on vacation for a week or on an extended trip like us, they often have interesting stories to share. So far I have found it hard to simply strike up a conversation with other people in our hostels. I am not sure why there is this hesitation on my part but I will be working on getting over it.

In the meantime, I have discovered a crutch to help me out: wearing clothing with the logos of sports teams on it. It seems that when you wear a sports team’s logo on your clothing it is a way for someone to ask you a question about it. An excellent example of this happened while I was wearing my SpringBoks rugby jersey. I picked this up in Cape Town, South Africa when Amy and I were there a couple of years ago and the SpringBoks happened to win the World Rugby Cup while we were there. It was an amazing experience to be a part of and the jersey was really cool so I bought one.

At dinner a couple of nights ago in Istanbul we were seated next to a couple from Cork, Ireland. The husband asked me if we were from South Africa, because of my rugby jersey. That initial icebreaking question led to a wonderful conversation and ultimately an offer to sleep on their couch if we ever found ourselves in Cork.

It is because of this experience as well as multiple encounters in the US while wearing Ohio State gear that I believe that sports team wear can be a great visual icebreaker and allow people to connect over something in common. I hope to pick up a few additions for my sport team collection as we travel. Any suggestions for sports teams that will make for good icebreakers? Any other ideas on how to break the ice and strike up conversations with our fellow travelers?

{ 5 comments }

Istanbul Pictures

by Keith on October 12, 2009 · 7 comments

So here is the first album of pictures from Istanbul, Turkey. You can view the slide show below, or click here to go to the pretty pictures page to get the link to the Picasa album. Hope you enjoy them. We are off early tomorrow to Selcuk to see the ruins at Ephesus. We will travel first by fast ferry, then train and finally by bus. Rumor has it there is internet on the ferry, but I am highly suspicious.

{ 7 comments }

Good Travel Karma

by Amy on October 9, 2009 · 7 comments

For the last few months while preparing for this trip, every now and then we would stretch our budget and leave a generous tip for housekeeping at a hotel or take a few extra moments of our time to help out a tourist lost in Center City Philadelphia. We chalked up the expense or the time as good for our travel karma and didn’t really think too much more about it.

The latest example occurred earlier this week in Chicago after we each purchased $10 CTA passes. We figured that at $2.25 a ride for the El, we would use the train at least four times each during our stay. However, the combination of too many meals out with friends and family and some unusually beautiful weather inspired us to ditch the train and walk the three miles from the Loop to Lakeview instead. So as we got off the train at O’Hare on Tuesday, we each had an extra ride on our cards. Since we wouldn’t be back in Chicago anytime soon and carrying around CTA passes for a year seemed a little ridiculous, we offered our passes to some travelers standing in line at the kiosk. Confused at first and not sure why we were giving up our CTA passes, we finally convinced one man that we weren’t crazy and he took our passes.

This morning the favor was returned. While we were in the lobby of our hotel, a fellow traveler who was leaving Istanbul offered us her last two tram tokens. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect as tonight we are taking our first tram ride to dinner in Boyoglu, an Istanbul neighborhood on the other side of the Golden Horn. The tram goes over the Galata Bridge (pictured below), which we walked across at sunset last night.