Gilda and I went to the Long Beach Convention Center to hear Rick Steves give a talk on travel tips for a "backdoor experience". I've been a fan of Rick and his PBS show "Europe through the Back door" since 1998 when my college roommate and I would watch episodes and wonder who this guy with two first names was.
After watching so many episodes, listening to his podcast every week, and travelling to Berlin in 2003 using a few of his tips, we pretty much knew everything that he talked about. Still, there's something about seeing someone live and the interaction between audience and speaker that made it just as thrilling.
Rick emphasized that you should "psychologically immerse yourself in the culture and information of your host country" and "travel engaged in what you have an opportunity to learn". That means do your homework before you go and use local news sources while you're there.
After his 90 minute talk carried over into 120 minutes, we stayed after to get a book signed by him. His off camera persona is just as kind as his on camera one. Despite the 1000+ crowd thronging him, Rick still manages to keep things in perspective.
While my current financial situation makes our hoped trip to Turkey this year a murkier dream, I have come up with another idea to keep the travel theme to my blog more vibrant. Every week, I'd like to recount some travel story from my experience. It will help me to hone my travel writing skills and interest my readers. See you then!
2 comments:
Looking forward to it!
Love Rick Steves and the autographed copy. Can't wait for the travel writing, Jeff!
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