A traveler's compromise

I like to travel. I think we've adequately established that. I spend most of my free time thinking of my next trip, whether it's a weekend trip up to Westchester or a trip across the Atlantic. Planning trips, perfecting itineraries and discovering deals to places I never even thought of visiting until right that moment makes me happy. It's my go-to when I'm particularly anxious or stressed out.

My boyfriend, the wonderful and lovely man that he is, is not in any way whatsoever passionate about travel. Sure, he'll do it (a lot of the time to oblige my travel bug) but he doesn't get excited by it. I'm not even saying to the degree that I do — he's just not all that into it.

Me and my travel buddy, Sheila, showcasing our
"I've seen Mt. Everest" certificates

When we started our relationship a bit more than one (very wonderful, mind you) year ago, we discussed that while he would NEVER want to join me on a trip to, say, India or Southeast Asia, he also would never stop me from going. Lucky for me I have a friend who's a particularly good traveling buddy who's just as crazy as I am about the whole thing. She currently is spending several months trekking through South America. Yes, I'm incredibly jealous.

Anyway, the fact that my man doesn't want to travel to some more out of the ordinary places is OK. I'm just as happy exploring the beauty of Europe and maybe, just maybe, Japan and/or Australia one day. Oh, if only things were that easy.

If you're a travel nut, like me, you know that no matter how dire financial straits might be, you find a way to make it work. (I've even outlined in an earlier post some of the ways that I, personally, am able to travel as much as I do, to the amazement of many of my more well-off friends.) If you're not a travel nut, like my boyfriend, then justifying spending $2,000 on one week of schlepping around Ireland doesn't really sound all that appealing — he'd much rather take that money and spend it on comic books. As he very astutely phrased it, that's where the two of us differ most greatly in our personalities: he would rather spend his money on tangible assets, whereas I am much happier spending it on experiences. 

And therein lies the rub.

Relaxing after snorkeling in Grand Cayman

Another issue is that I am a very active traveler. My philosophy is that if I already spent that much of my hard-earned and not-so-easy-to-come-by money to get to a place, I might as well take full advantage of it and see as much as possible. My boyfriend, like many normal people, prefers to actually relax on his vacations. Perhaps that's why he was less combative about our trip to Grand Cayman than he's being about my very jam-packed itinerary for Ireland.

Luckily, we both love each other enough to compromise, which I hear is what a successful relationship is all about. He has agreed to — perhaps begrudgingly, but I choose to ignore that — go on my trip to Ireland; I have agreed to go to as many book stores as he wants to visit while we're there.

In the future, I'll just have to either plan my vacations with my man locally and around certain comic conventions (see Weekend Getaways: Chicago and Philadelphia), or I'll have to capitalize on his love of boats and plan many more cruise vacations. Not a problem, considering I also enjoy cruises.

It's all about compromise.

Have any tips on how to get some more unwilling parties to comply with your traveling needs?

Easy fasting and yummy remembering

I wish an easy fast to all of my fellow members of the Tribe out there today.

Strange how fasting gave me the idea to write a post on my favorite meals that I've eaten during my travels. Here goes a mild form of masochism. Hope those of you who can eat today enjoy it, and for those of you who can't, I'm very sorry — though, come to think of it, you're probably not reading this on Saturday anyway, because that's not allowed, so enjoy it over your own yummy meal!



Cava sangria and salmon topped with pineapple with a side of fresh vegetables on our first night in Barcelona made for the best meal ever in my European travels.

 

The next day in Barcelona brought a meal constituted of individual pieces bought from the awesome food market off of La Rambla, including a baguette, cheese, lunch meat and tomatoes, all for a whopping 2 Euro per person. The day ended with an enormous seafood paella split between the four of us.

                              

Edam cheese is super duper yummy, especially when you get it from a shop in Edam.

I could have eaten my way through Italy, and practically did ;-). Our trip started in Venice, where I had the best slice of pizza of my life at a hole-in-the-wall little shop in Ghetto Vecchio (the Old Ghetto). Gelato was EVERYWHERE ... this shot was taken in Rome.

                                          

In Dublin there was a lot of liquid nourishment, but this traditional Irish breakfast helped soak up some of that alcohol.

 I loved being in Prague. The effortless beauty of the city and its architecture was a pleasure to explore. As was the food, which reminded me so much of the food I have grown up with. This meat plate was enough to fill up two of us.

French food is renowned for its flavor and yumminess. Even this Parisian deli hot dog, smothered in cheese, and accompanied by delicious pastries held up its reputation.

I think the best meals are ones you create for yourself ... especially when they're made with the freshest produce. This simple but absolutely delicious meal of pasta with pesto chicken and tomatoes and some white wine was the result of a day of shopping at London's Borough Market. I bought the tomatoes, my friend bought the pesto, and we topped it off with some Waitrose pasta and chicken. It was yummy!

During my trip to Egypt, our group took a detour, on camels, to a small Nubian village where we had one of the best meals I have ever had. The delicious meat, potatoes and vegetables were prepared in a traditional Nubian fashion, slowly baked in clay pots in the oven. Seriously, YUMMY!

Eating Indian food feels like an explosion on your tongue. The spices and exotic flavors create a party for your pallet. And it tastes even better when it's the product of your own hard work. Below is a fruit pizza (not something you'd think would taste good, but totally is) from a small restaurant and the fantastical result of a cooking class, both in the little town of Orcha in India.

In Nepal, my tour guide doused his meals in hot sauce because he claimed they were too bland. For me, they were just right. Below is a Nepalese samosa, which was more like a burrito, covered in cheese (which is always OK with me).

Chicago's known for its deep-dish pizza. And rightfully so. The stuff is delicious. Now, I know that as a native New Yorker, uttering that phrase is probably blasphemous, but I'm not saying it's BETTER than my beloved NYC pizza. In my opinion, it's too different to compare. Below is a yummy steak and broccoli stuffed pie from Giordano's.

On my most recent trip to Grand Cayman, my boyfriend cooked a lot in our hotel suite. It was cheaper, and frankly, a lot more delicious than the on-site restaurant's cuisine. However, as food lovers, we absolutely had to try the local delicacy of turtle. And it was delicious. Below is my boyfriend's yummy concoction of chicken in hickory-barbecue sauce combined with peach preserves and broccoli, a meal of turtle steak from what we were told was one of the best restaurants on the island, and a coconut that we devoured at a coconut tasting at our resort.

             

For me, food is such an important part of travel. Experiencing local cuisine is a great way to partake in local culture — and it's yummy to boot!

What are some of your favorite travel meals?

A lazy vacation for an active traveler

I’m a huge proponent of active vacations. By that I mean vacations in which I have every day jam packed with activities and sightseeing adventures. Lying around on the beach, sipping mudslides and lazing the days away is not an appealing use of vacation time for me.

However, with the right company, at the right point in the year, at a time when one ::ahem, I, ahem:: is feeling quite burned out from life, a vacation spent doing relatively nothing can be just what one needs.

The view from our room's balcony

Eating fresh-cut coconut jelly

My boyfriend and I just got back from a lazy week in Grand Cayman, where I mostly slept for practically 12 hours every night, drank pure coconut water, lounged around the pool and played Scrabble. True, part of me thought, what’s the point of spending the money on a flight (the hotel stay was a gift from my Dad) to do basically what I can do at home? But it’s not the same. Vacations bring on a different mindset, proved even truer by the fact that as soon as I landed in NYC, I immediately fell back into my pattern of worrying about everything. Yes, most of the things I did during my week away were things I could have done from my own living room, but at least my mind had a weeklong break that obviously was very necessary.

Stingrays flocked to the ship, knowing there was chow

Don’t worry; we did do things that we only could do in our destination. On the fifth day of our trip we partook in a Stingray City and snorkeling adventure organized by the concierge of our resort. My boyfriend very bravely conquered his fear of the ocean and we stood in the Caribbean together as stingrays gracefully floated around us, brushing their silky underbellies against our legs as they scented the squid being held out for them by the other people surrounding us.

I also overcame my discomfort with snorkeling after a terrifying incident my first time in Jamaica where I got stuck on the reef and scraped up my knees before finally wriggling out into open waters. This experience was much better and I saw some cool fish at the edge of the reef (though I was still a bit too panicky to go in much further).

Gazebo in the Gardens

A sign at Rum Point

On the last day before leaving we rented a car and, driving on the wrong side of the road, explored the entire island — in five hours. As you can imagine, on an island that it takes pretty much 2 hours to circle (we made a couple of stops on our exploration), there isn’t all that much to do EXCEPT lay around and soak up the sun. We did trek through the stunning Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Gardens and spotted the native blue iguana. We also ate turtle and conch steak, both of which were quite yummy. But other than that, it was a much-needed, fully relaxing vacation.

Overall, I concluded that unless you’re someone who enjoys a weeklong beach vacation (which I usually don’t) or are an avid diver, I would say that Grand Cayman is much better as a cruise destination where you get dropped off for a day, explore the town (which mostly is duty-free shopping outlets), maybe do a Stingray City excursion for a couple of hours and then return to your sailing resort and continue on to the next spot.

To see all of my Grand Cayman photos, click here.