This is Why I Will Always Travel Solo From Now: Trip Report -Rome and Sorrento
Oct 27th, 2005, 03:35 AM
#101
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I will 'tag' this report and then try very hard not to read it for a few days. Hopefully Barb will have poured out all the gory details by then and I do not have to hang in suspense....
We get older and wiser
We get older and wiser
Oct 27th, 2005, 04:20 AM
#104
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Okay. It's now 7:12, I've got my coffee, and I'm waiting....
ira & jenv - so true! Traveling with my parents, I was the self-appointed "final room checker" upon departure. This got to be a "you don't trust us" ritual that I began to hate.
Yet one morning when they were in the car waiting (im)patiently for me to finish my inspection of their room, they were immediately silenced forever when I appeared with their medications!
Traveling companions. They're great!
Okay, Barb. Your turn.
ira & jenv - so true! Traveling with my parents, I was the self-appointed "final room checker" upon departure. This got to be a "you don't trust us" ritual that I began to hate.
Yet one morning when they were in the car waiting (im)patiently for me to finish my inspection of their room, they were immediately silenced forever when I appeared with their medications!
Traveling companions. They're great!
Okay, Barb. Your turn.
Oct 27th, 2005, 04:33 AM
#105
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Dear Diva Barb,
Your anecdotes about traveling with fellow Divas bring back funny memories of my travels with friends years ago.
You certainly describe all of their faults and flaws in fascinating detail!
Much fun to read, even though I can't help thinking of what happened to Truman Capote after excerpts from "Answered Prayers" were published...and he was a brilliant writer.
You must be brave- I would never dream of trying to do the planning and booking of a trip for five first-time female travelers to Italy unless it was a paying job, and even then...!
It's funny that you even got a post-trip thank you note from your friend-the sub-Divas must have a different perspective. Better luck lext time and have fun continuing your odyssey here.
Your anecdotes about traveling with fellow Divas bring back funny memories of my travels with friends years ago.
You certainly describe all of their faults and flaws in fascinating detail!
Much fun to read, even though I can't help thinking of what happened to Truman Capote after excerpts from "Answered Prayers" were published...and he was a brilliant writer.
You must be brave- I would never dream of trying to do the planning and booking of a trip for five first-time female travelers to Italy unless it was a paying job, and even then...!
It's funny that you even got a post-trip thank you note from your friend-the sub-Divas must have a different perspective. Better luck lext time and have fun continuing your odyssey here.
Oct 27th, 2005, 04:58 AM
#106
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oh my god, this is hilarious. im reminded of the old Noel Coward song "Why Do The Wrong People Travel". I don't care if I sound like a snob for saying that.
(for anyone who doesn't know this song, I'll post the lyrics. they're very, very funny)
(for anyone who doesn't know this song, I'll post the lyrics. they're very, very funny)
Oct 27th, 2005, 05:23 AM
#107
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Its so true that you really do not know people until you travel with them.I went on a package tour with a friend to Morocco many years ago to a resort in Agadir...never again. She got a horrific sunburn after my repeated warnings (Try to tell Irish people about sunburn and they ignore it until a Dr need to be called as they are in agony!) She actually ended up cxalling me "mammy" as a joke on this trip because I had to do everythinf even ask for the room keys even though I told he the simple number in French a hundred times. It was shocking to see a capable young woman turn into a quivering mass the second anything becomes awkward or difficult. I had to fight off the guys hassling us in the restaurants, in the shops etc. I was exhausted when I came home...never again. I also never have the desire to go back to Agadir because of all the bad memories. Such a shame!
Now I do what I like and if anyone wants to join they are welcome but I make clear what I want to do.
Now I do what I like and if anyone wants to join they are welcome but I make clear what I want to do.
Oct 27th, 2005, 05:36 AM
#110
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I would love to see a mini-documentary of this trip - but would like to hear the same story through the eyes of the Divas included!
Miss Ziegfeld-thanks for the mention of the Noel Coward Song-I would love to hear those lyrics-maybe I'll google them today..
Miss Ziegfeld-thanks for the mention of the Noel Coward Song-I would love to hear those lyrics-maybe I'll google them today..
Oct 27th, 2005, 05:58 AM
#112
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From a new reader: At the moment, there is only one thing I am grateful for from this report: that I am reading the whole thing on Thurs morning (10/27) on the same day you're supposed to be coming out with the next installment! had I read it last night, I think I would have been too keyed up to sleep! It's so vivid and addictive...What will I do when you leave me hanging tonight????
I had a lousy traveling experience several years ago with just one guy. He WAS a friend of my then boyfriend (now DH). It was his first trip to Paris. He had to be in control of EVERYTHING even though he knew nothing. Among other ridiculous things: he insisted on doing all the talking with his high school French and barred me from EVER talking even though French is my first language!! I totally respected him trying, but resented that I could only speak English, because "if people even heard me talk, they'd ignore him". At the same time, he insisted that we could never separate because it was his "first trip". That was just the tip of the iceberg. NEVER AGAIN!!
Anyhow -- MORE PLEASE!!!
I had a lousy traveling experience several years ago with just one guy. He WAS a friend of my then boyfriend (now DH). It was his first trip to Paris. He had to be in control of EVERYTHING even though he knew nothing. Among other ridiculous things: he insisted on doing all the talking with his high school French and barred me from EVER talking even though French is my first language!! I totally respected him trying, but resented that I could only speak English, because "if people even heard me talk, they'd ignore him". At the same time, he insisted that we could never separate because it was his "first trip". That was just the tip of the iceberg. NEVER AGAIN!!
Anyhow -- MORE PLEASE!!!
Oct 27th, 2005, 06:09 AM
#114
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While you're waiting...
Why do the Wrong People Travel
TravelTravel they say improves the mind,
An irritating platitude
Which frankly, entre nous,Is very far from true.
Personally I've yet to find
That longitude and latitude
Can educate those scores
Of monumental bores
Who travel in groups and herds and troupes
Of various breeds and sexes,
Till the whole world reelsTo shouts and squeals
And the clicking of Rolleiflexes.
Why do the wrong people travel,travel, travel,
When the right people stay back home?
What compulsion compels themAnd who the hell tells them
To drag their bags to ZanzibarInstead of staying quietly in Omaha?
The Taj MahalAnd the Grand CanalAnd the sunny French Riviera
Would be less oppressed
If the Middle West
Would settle for somewhere rather nearer.
Please do not think that I criticise or cavil
At a genuine urge to roam,But why oh why do the wrong peopletravel
When the right people stay back home!Why do the wrong people travel,travel, travel When the right people stay back home?
What explains this mass maniaTo leave Pennsylvania
And clack around like flocks of geese,
Demanding dry martinis on the Isles Of Greece?
In the smallest streetwhere the gourmets meet
They invariably fetch up
And it’s hard to make
Them accept a steak
That isn't served rare and smeared with ketchup
It would take years to un ravel - ravel - ravel
Every impulse that makes them roam
But why oh why do the wrong peopletravelWhen the right people stay back homeWhy do the wrong people travel,travel, travel
When the right people stay back home?
What peculiar obsessionsInspire those processions
Of families from Houston, Tex,With all those cameras around their necks?
They will take a trainOr an aeroplane
For an hour on the Costa Brava,
And they'll see Pompeii
On the only dayThat it's up to its ears in molten lava.
Millions of tourists are churning up the gravel
While they gaze at St. Peter's Dome,But why oh why do the wrong peopletravelWhen the right people stay back home,
And mind their businessWhen the right people stay back home,Won't someone tell me
Why the right people stay back home!
Why do the Wrong People Travel
TravelTravel they say improves the mind,
An irritating platitude
Which frankly, entre nous,Is very far from true.
Personally I've yet to find
That longitude and latitude
Can educate those scores
Of monumental bores
Who travel in groups and herds and troupes
Of various breeds and sexes,
Till the whole world reelsTo shouts and squeals
And the clicking of Rolleiflexes.
Why do the wrong people travel,travel, travel,
When the right people stay back home?
What compulsion compels themAnd who the hell tells them
To drag their bags to ZanzibarInstead of staying quietly in Omaha?
The Taj MahalAnd the Grand CanalAnd the sunny French Riviera
Would be less oppressed
If the Middle West
Would settle for somewhere rather nearer.
Please do not think that I criticise or cavil
At a genuine urge to roam,But why oh why do the wrong peopletravel
When the right people stay back home!Why do the wrong people travel,travel, travel When the right people stay back home?
What explains this mass maniaTo leave Pennsylvania
And clack around like flocks of geese,
Demanding dry martinis on the Isles Of Greece?
In the smallest streetwhere the gourmets meet
They invariably fetch up
And it’s hard to make
Them accept a steak
That isn't served rare and smeared with ketchup
It would take years to un ravel - ravel - ravel
Every impulse that makes them roam
But why oh why do the wrong peopletravelWhen the right people stay back homeWhy do the wrong people travel,travel, travel
When the right people stay back home?
What peculiar obsessionsInspire those processions
Of families from Houston, Tex,With all those cameras around their necks?
They will take a trainOr an aeroplane
For an hour on the Costa Brava,
And they'll see Pompeii
On the only dayThat it's up to its ears in molten lava.
Millions of tourists are churning up the gravel
While they gaze at St. Peter's Dome,But why oh why do the wrong peopletravelWhen the right people stay back home,
And mind their businessWhen the right people stay back home,Won't someone tell me
Why the right people stay back home!
Oct 27th, 2005, 06:14 AM
#115
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So? Lessons get learned. Same thing happened to me. 2 of us (old friends, 50 something females) go to Paris then hook up down in the Burgundy region for the self-drive barge trip. 14 people. 14 was fine...there was plenty of people to entertain one another when others of us meandered away.
The one person I was to baby-sit through the Paris part of the gig behaved in ways I never saw her do in the STates! Butted in front of a line during the lunch hour at a boulangerie... which left me with a "What the h@LL?" Ripped and tore through a store that sold luggage (she didn't pack light and since no one was helping her carry her luggage, she decided to buy new stuff on wheels)...causing the sales person some duress..anyway. Love my friend dearly but?
A year later, I was back in Paris by myself. Now, the thought of someone accompanying me seems as if a "threat" somehow.
The one person I was to baby-sit through the Paris part of the gig behaved in ways I never saw her do in the STates! Butted in front of a line during the lunch hour at a boulangerie... which left me with a "What the h@LL?" Ripped and tore through a store that sold luggage (she didn't pack light and since no one was helping her carry her luggage, she decided to buy new stuff on wheels)...causing the sales person some duress..anyway. Love my friend dearly but?
A year later, I was back in Paris by myself. Now, the thought of someone accompanying me seems as if a "threat" somehow.
Oct 27th, 2005, 06:29 AM
#116
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What fun! While I am sitting here this morning anxiously awaiting the next part of "the story" I have a technical question that I hope some of you will be able to help me with.
I am going to be camping this weekend and will be away from my computer. (We leave in 2 hrs) I hate to think I will miss any of Barb's adventures. How can I "tag" this report so I can read it all when I return?
Thank you for your help
1jan1
I am going to be camping this weekend and will be away from my computer. (We leave in 2 hrs) I hate to think I will miss any of Barb's adventures. How can I "tag" this report so I can read it all when I return?
Thank you for your help
1jan1
Oct 27th, 2005, 06:33 AM
#117
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OMG, this is absolutely hilarious!!! You really should sell the movie rights
I am so sorry that this trip was a fiasco, but I will be honest and say that I am sitting here giggling and cannot stop. Please do not condense any of it though!
I am so sorry that this trip was a fiasco, but I will be honest and say that I am sitting here giggling and cannot stop. Please do not condense any of it though!
Oct 27th, 2005, 06:56 AM
#119
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"This is great. I hope nothing heartwarming happens to spoil the mood."
Hilarious Pausanias - I would travel with you and that's a compliment!! I have been going solo for a few years now and love it.
Hilarious Pausanias - I would travel with you and that's a compliment!! I have been going solo for a few years now and love it.
