{"id":882,"date":"2012-02-14T00:19:49","date_gmt":"2012-02-14T04:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.wordpress.com\/?p=882"},"modified":"2013-06-17T18:44:41","modified_gmt":"2013-06-17T18:44:41","slug":"on-being-a-traveler-at-sea-02122012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=882","title":{"rendered":"On Being a \u2018Traveler\u2019 \u2013 At Sea \u2013 [02\/12\/2012]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I am currently reading (while taking a much needed breather from the amazingness that is Song of Ice and Fire<\/em>) Josh Gate\u2019s biography. For those who don\u2019t know how Josh Gates is, he\u2019s host of a tv show called Destination Truth, which shares the evening timeslot with Ghost Hunters<\/em>. When I\u2019m home, I\u2019ve enjoyed a lot of hours curled up on the living room couch with a cup of tea watching this crazy person delve into all manner of cultural myths and legends to try and find out whether or not they are in fact real, or could at least have some basis in reality. Unlike a lot of reality based \u201cparanormal\u201d shows, Destination Truth doesn\u2019t usually go for the cheap thrills, if something isn\u2019t possible, they say so, and they usually are quite good about looking into the culture that has created such myths as well as the myths themselves. Usually I end up looking up more information at the end of an episode.<\/p>\n

Anyway, Gates is first and foremost a traveler. And in his own words, there is a huge<\/em> difference between a \u2018traveler\u2019 and a tourist.<\/p>\n

There is a very real difference between being a traveler and being a tourist, and we should all aspire to be the former. Being a traveler means being an enthusiast, a vessel eager to be filled up with the exotic. Being a tourist means checking off a prescribed itinerary, behaving like a sheep, and generally resisting the influences of the unknown in favour of familiar comforts. Citizens, this is a plea for sanity, nay a call to arms! It is time for a revolution against the imperial forces of tacky travel. I submit to you that there IS a better way!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

For the most part, with our organized shore excursions and highlight tours that load dozens of people into buses and cart them around the various ports, there is no question that our line of work caters mostly to tourists. Or to travelers who don\u2019t have access to more adventurous ways of traveling. But there are several of our guests, and a large percentage of our crew, who pride themselves on being travelers in the truest sense. Yes, we do our physical moving from one place to another in the comfort of a floating palace, but once we get to the place we\u2019re going that tends to change.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a reason I choose to no longer escort guest tours. And it\u2019s not just because I was nearly left behind in Cairo (yes that happened, and it\u2019s a story for another day), \u00a0I discovered the hard way that I didn\u2019t like being shepherded around at the mercy of someone else, no matter how kindly that person might be. The best day I had on my last Europe itinerary was the day I spent with one family in Rome, at no one\u2019s mercy but our own (granted we almost missed the ship, but that too is all part of the adventure) .<\/p>\n

There is, as Gates aptly observes near the end of his narrative, no public relations ad for real travel. As a society we\u2019ve become convinced that travel should<\/em> be preorganized, that we should want<\/em> to be shepherded about. The joy of wandering so easily becomes lost. Given my own way, I would pack a bag, don a pair of decent shoes and go wherever I ended up\u2026<\/p>\n

Which I suppose qualifies me as an official \u2013 though unconventional \u2013 traveler.<\/p>\n

I look forward to the fact that I\u2019m nearly thirty years old, and sometimes I start to panic, and then I look back<\/em> at the things I\u2019ve managed to see and do before I even reach that milestone. I did<\/em> \u201cThe Grand Tour\u201d (6 auditions, three countries, three weeks thank-you-very-much), and I didn\u2019t just take a \u2018gap year\u2019 I live a \u2018gap career\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing the world is a perquisite to understanding one\u2019s place in it\u201d<\/p>\n

So, for those of you who prefer to stay home, who prefer to come up with excuses why you couldn\u2019t possibly do this, or go there or see that. I leave you to it. One day I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll even join you. For now though, I remain almost forever content to simply see what\u2019s on the other side of the next hill…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am currently reading (while taking a much needed breather from the amazingness that is Song of Ice and Fire) Josh Gate\u2019s biography. For those who don\u2019t know how Josh Gates is, he\u2019s host of a tv show called Destination … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-below-the-waterline","category-grand-world-voyage-2012"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-ee","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=882"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2242,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882\/revisions\/2242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}