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.
What travel karma have you experienced? Share in the comments below.
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