Boldly Go Solo

New Year's thoughts, wishes, dreams

For me, the beauty of travel is how even mundane days at home are enlivened by those memories. Random snippets of news or information send my mind to intriguing places I've visited and experiences I had there.

When I noticed that my jeans were made in Jordan, my mind leaped to Petra, the city carved into rocks. I visited a couple of years ago during a trip to Israel. 

When I read a story about Israel in the local paper, I found myself thinking about the history and modernity I experienced there, from the museums to the food markets to the high-fashion stores. 

And when I heard the word "geothermal" on the radio recently, I thought about the geothermal lagoon in Iceland where people go all year round to soak, float and get massages with the lagoon's silica mud. And where, weirdly enough, I met a buyer of Icelandic lamb for the Whole Foods supermarket chain. Yes, while floating in the lagoon.

Our minds wander hundreds of places all day long. It feels like a gift to travel the world in some of those wanderings. In between the thoughts about the to-do list, the work obligations, the worries.

Travel is not only about a week or two weeks away. It is about a day-to-day life enriched. Along with a way to  have a deeper understanding of the world. 

If it means going on your own to some of the places you dream about, so be it. Think about the gift of a lifetime you'll be giving yourself. 

Happy New Year and best wishes for a well-traveled 2014. Go!

Photo: The Treasury in Petra, Jordan. By Ellen Perlman

Solo travelers on solo travel

A round-up of solo travel news

Lately I've enjoyed reading posts from solo travelers on the reasons they travel solo.

From a blog called the Simply Luxurious life, two thoughtful posts on solo travel.

Why Not...Travel Alone?: When traveling alone "be reminded of what stirs your passions" and "boost your confidence" and "realize the difference between alone and loneliness." I like the quote the writer found: “The first rule of travel is that you should always go with someone you love, which is why I travel alone.” – Andrew O’Hagan 

Why Not...Part Deux offers some tips on dining alone and getting a seat at a New York theater. And there are cautions about safety. For instance, travelers should dress to fit in and consider springing for a taxi from the airport or train station at night rather than walk around a strange place alone, in the dark. 

Is solo travel becoming trendy?

The number of women traveling alone is increasing, according to Small Luxury Hotels of the World, a hotel booking site. Between 2010 and 2011, bookings by women traveling solo increased 53 percent in this company's core markets, which include Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Russia, the UK and the USA.

9/11 memorial in Israel

Three years ago, a memorial for 9/11 was inaugurated in Israel outside of Jerusalem. The 9/11 Living Memorial is a billowing American flag, partly surrounded on its circular plaza by the names of the more than 3,000 people who died in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.  

The waving flag is meant to resemble an eternal flame.

Enclosed in the base is a piece of a beam from one of the destroyed buildings, reddish iron a couple of feet long, behind a piece of glass. Today, the U.S. ambassador will attend a memorial ceremony.

1,000 places to see...um...soonish

The second edition of "1,000 Places To See Before You Die" is out and I'm waiting to be assigned to do the "Solo Travel" edition. (Kidding! Sort of...)

Do the math and you realize that even if you travel three times a year, you'll have to live to be 334 years old to actually see all these places before, well, you die. And that's if you start the year you're born.

But, of course, this is beside the point.

"1,000 Places to See Before You Die" is one of those armchair travel books great for reading about where you've been, and for perusing where you might want to go. 

Want a copy of your own? I've got three to give away. Which gives you three chances to "win."

To be eligible* for the first copy, all you've got to do is "like" boldlygosolo on Facebook. I'll choose a winner for that one on May 15.

Ways to win one of the other copies coming up.

As for the book, I already "like" it. When I first flipped through, it just happened to open to places in Israel. Where I'd just visited in January. The two entries on facing pages were Caesarea and The Galilee.

A few hours in Jerusalem's Old City

I've been home from Israel for several weeks now and still haven't figured out what to write about it. Facts and figures about history and religion rained down on me during my 10-day visit. I was awed by sights that millions have visited before me.

The religious and political aspects of life in Israel, and between Israel and other countries, have been written about time and again.  

So where do I take a story? Or a blog post? No point in me recounting the complicated history I learned (and maybe should have already known). That can be found in books.

Books retelling stories from the Israelites to the Babylonians to the Persians to the Greeks during the Hellenistic period to the Romans, the Byzantines, the early Muslims, the Crusaders, the Mamluks, the Ottomans, the British...

Israel for first-timers

Boker Tov, (good morning)

No time, no time.

I've been in Israel for almost four days, seeing and learning a zillion things, so there's no time to post here. I've been to the Western (Wailing) wall and to the Temple Mount. To old Jerusalem and, as of last night, "new" Tel Aviv.

Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust musesum, was a profound experience but too short a visit. There was one day in Jerusalem that I heard the Muslim call to prayer, followed by church bells. Here, in this Jewish nation. I'm finally, viscerally, understanding the intense mix of religions and why tensions can so easily arise.

Soon, I'm off to ancient Jaffa.

I'll tweet when I can. Post photos when I can. But if not, write in more detail when I return.

Meanwhile, check in every so often for the tweets on the top left of the blog. I'll shoot some 140-character thoughts if there's time and an Internet connection.

Shalom