Episode 102 - Patricia Schultz, Why We Travel
When we are working full-time, it seems we never seem to have the time to travel. We planned so meticulously that now we wonder how we could ever hope the magic of travel could ever catch up and surprise us.
Now we are retired, and still trying to squeeze as much mileage as possible from travel but we are also learning how to reset our watches when we travel, leaving some time for the unexpected now and again.
Christine knows travel is one of the best things of life in spite of all of its challenges. Whether you are traveling within your own city or around the world. Learn the art of serendipity, enjoy the journey, and tackle problems one at a time. Maybe you cannot get out there and find serendipity, but you can cultivate a mindset that accepts boldness, openness, and whimsicality.
There are a lot of great things planned but the joys of traveling are spontaneous events that cannot be structured in a schedule. For the modern traveler, serendipity is that one thing that every journey needs, yet nobody can plan.
Every travel story needs a plot twist: an accident, an accident of fate, a lucky twist that leads to a new world.
Today’s guest is Patricia Schultz. Patricia is the author of the #1 New York Times best seller 1000 places to see before you die, and 1000 places to see in the United States and Canada before you die.
A veteran travel journalist with over 30 years of experience. She's written for Frommers Berlitz and access travel guides as well as Wall Street Journal, Conde Nast Traveler and travel weekly, where she's a contributing editor. Her home base is in New York City that you will rarely find her there.
For years, Patricia has been telling us where to travel. Now in her recently released book she's telling us why to travel, and she reveals what she finds makes travel such a richly rewarding experience. Her new book, Why We Travel is filled with personal stories and anecdotes and quotes that will inspire plus beautiful travel photography that will have us excited to explore.
Patricia quotes favorite authors and luminaries on the importance of travel. Travel is as the writer pico Iyer says the thing that causes us to stay up late follow impulse and find ourselves as wide open as when we are in love.
Where we travel is all about rekindling that feeling Christine loved being able to speak with Patricia and hear about some of her most memorable travel experiences that really connect us to the essence of why we travel.
Join Christine for this soulful conversation with Patricia Schultz.
In this episode, Christine and Patricia discuss:
Who Patricia is in the travel industry
How travel has changed the way she eats
Why travel allows us to open up to the world
The magic of serendipity in travel
Why the perfect time to travel was yesterday
Resources & Links Mentioned in the Episode
Learn more about Patricia and to purchase her books, head over to https://www.workman.com/authors/patricia-schultz
Follow Patricia on Instagram and Facebook
Join me for my Women’s Wilderness and Yoga Retreat in Alaska in March 2023!
We’ll be traveling 63 miles north of the Arctic Circle to stay at Arctic Hive, owned by my friend Mollie Busby and her husband Sean. This boutique property nestled in the Brooks Range is way off the beaten path and also off grid. We’ll stay in beautiful cabins built by hand by our hosts, practice yoga in their yoga dome lovingly referred to as The Hive, with gorgeous views of the surrounding nature.
We’ll explore the wilderness by snowshoe and dog sled, connect with members of the local community to learn about living in this remote environment, enjoy daily yoga practice and vegan meals all while keeping our eye out for the beautiful northern lights that like to show off their magic this time of year.
I only have 6 spaces for this unique adventure and a few are already taken. Hop over to the Lotus Sojourns website to book yours today.
Please share this experience with anyone you know would love this restorative adventure.
Want to learn more, you can listen to my Soul of Travel conversation, episode 67 with Mollie Busby
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About the Soul Of Travel Podcast
Soul of Travel honors the passion and dedication of the people making a positive impact in tourism. In each episode, you’ll hear the story of women who are industry professionals and seasoned travelers and community leaders who know travel is more than a vacation. It is an opportunity for personal awareness and it is a vehicle for change. We are thought leaders, action takers, and heart-centered change makers.
The guests work in all sectors of the tourism industry. You'll hear from adventure-based community organizations, social impact businesses, travel photographers and videographers, tourism boards and destination marketing organizations, and transformational travel experts. They all honor the idea that travel is more than a vacation and focus on sustainable travel, eco-travel, community-based tourism, and intentional travel.
These conversations are meant to educate, inspire and create community. They are directed to new travelers and seasoned travelers, as well as industry professionals and those who are curious about a career in travel.
If you want to learn about new destinations, types of travel, or how to be more intentional or live life on purpose, join Christine Winebrenner Irick for soulful conversations with her community of fellow travelers exploring the heart, the mind, and the globe. These conversations highlight what tourism really means for the world.
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Credits. Christine Winebrenner Irick (Host, creator, editor.) Patricia Schultz (Guest). Original music by Clark Adams. Editing and production by Rayna Booth.
Transcript
KEYWORDS
travel, people, couscous, home, book, world, pandemic, quotes, places, destination, life, lotus, thought, conversations, understand, morocco, find, serendipity
Christine Winebrenner Irick 00:08
Thank you for joining me for soulful conversations with my community of fellow travelers, exploring the heart, the mind and the globe. These conversations highlight what travel really means for the world. Soul of Travel honors the passion and dedication of the people making a positive impact in tourism. Each week, I'll be speaking to women who are tourism professionals, world travelers and leaders in their communities will explore how travel has changed them and how that has rippled out and inspired them to change the world. These conversations are as much about travel as they are about passion, and living life with purpose, chasing dreams, building businesses, and having the desire to make the world a better place. This is a community of people who no travel is more than a vacation. It is an opportunity for personal awareness, and it is a vehicle for change. We are thought leaders, action takers, and heart centered change makers I'm Christine Winebrenner Irick. And this is the Soul of Travel.
Patricia Schultz is the author of the number one New York Times best seller 1000 places to see before you die, and 1000 places to see in the United States and Canada before you die. A veteran travel journalist with over 30 years of experience. She's written for Frommers Berlitz and access travel guides as well as Wall Street Journal, Conde Nast Traveler and travel weekly, where she's a contributing editor. Her home base is in New York City so you will rarely find her there. For years, Patricia has been telling us where to travel. Now in her recently released book she's telling us why to travel, and she reveals what she finds makes travel such a richly rewarding experience.
Her new book Why We Travel is filled with personal stories and anecdotes and quotes that will inspire plus beautiful travel photography that will have us excited to explore. She quotes favorite authors and luminaries on the importance of travel.
Travel is, as the writer Pico Iyer says, the thing that causes us to stay up late, follow impulse and find ourselves as wide open as when we are in love. While we travel is all about rekindling that feeling I loved being able to speak with Patricia and hear about some of her most memorable travel experiences that really connect us to the essence of why we travel.
Join me now for my soulful conversation with Patricia Schultz.
Welcome to the soul of travel podcast. I am very excited today to be welcoming author Patricia Schultz to the series to talk about her latest book.
Those of you joining may be familiar with her first book, which is 1000 places to see before you die. And she has recently released 100 reasons why we travel to see the world. So I'm so excited to dive into this topic and learn about your new book today. Welcome to the podcast.
03:43
Thank you. Thanks very, very, very much for having me. I really appreciate it. Thank
Christine Winebrenner Irick 03:48
you. Thank you, I first wanted to just start and for those of you who are just listening, you're not going to see this but I wanted Patricia to see this is my copy of 1000 places to see before you die. It is just a very well loved book. I actually use this as a way to kind of share my love of travel and what I wanted from the world. When I met my husband, this was one of the first birthday gifts I gave to him. It was like this is all the things I think are magic. And yeah, so it's been a part of my life. So I'm excited to share it.
04:24
That's gonna be very nice. I remember back you know, this year, actually next year 2023 is our 20th anniversary and years ago, so when it first came out, somebody sent me a photo of the moment that he had proposed to his wife and he was on his knee and instead of handing or bringing handed her the book, and he said I want you to share my life with me and this is where I want to promise to take you so I would have said yes.
Christine Winebrenner Irick 04:59
I would have thought it wouldn't be the same as a dream proposal.
05:03
Kind of unconventional, but I thought it was very sweet.
Christine Winebrenner Irick 05:07
Yeah, I would relate to that. That would be amazing. Well, as we get started talking a little bit about why we travel, one of the things I was so excited for is that we talk a lot about being intentional in your travel. And so I think understanding why we travel is a really important thing that is becoming a part of more and more conversations today. For me, I would love to understand a little bit about what got you started traveling, I know that you were bitten by the travel bug early in this book, you share that you really found it hard to even leave summer camp adventures, you were just addicted to the experience of being out there in the world, and also found it really easy to set out on a gap year and explore. So I would love to know, what do you think pulled you in that direction? Like what got you excited about getting out there and engaging with the world?
06:02
You know, that's a really good question. And I still don't know, is it nature or nurture? My family didn't travel much. And I always, you know, my ears pick up when I hear the conversation going in that direction that people say, Oh, we don't travel, because I never traveled, my family didn't take us anywhere. And, you know, they didn't take us anywhere either, except every August to the Jersey Shore. But I realized, yeah, that was somewhere, you know, for a four year old, that was a big deal. And it was a time of being removed from everything, you know, as comfortable as my little bubble was. And we had very modest means but enviable to many people I would see later elsewhere in the world. But um, it you know, removed me from my friends that removed me from, you know, play dates and pre kindergarten and the, you know, the structure of life as I knew it, and it was a break, and it was a break away. And I found that exhilarating, you know, it was sun, sand, and surf and everything that I didn't have at home.
So I think we have this natural inclination, many of us to see what is different from what we know, to see the other, to see the unusual or to see things that you know, are, you know, at maximum astonishing and exciting. And once you realize that, that exists everywhere in the world, and you don't need to go very far to find it, you don't need to look very hard, it's pretty easy to find, but you do need the right eyes, you do need the right energy to get you up and out. Because that's often the hardest part, just closing the front door behind you is often the most difficult thing. So I don't know where I inherited that from, but I sure had it in spades. And I was lucky that my parents who did not have it at all, really all they wanted me to do is to go away to college, get a teaching degree, come home and teach second grade and marry the local postman or so I don't know what they wanted, but they didn't get with me. But they were very understanding that what they did want from me is to do what brought me satisfaction and joy. And they saw as I did that it was travel.
But you know, I didn't understand until pretty recently that this travel thing could be a thing. You know, I just thought it's what you did, in between jobs, in between assignments, when you came upon some money, when you were, you know, getting a new job, when you're retired , when you do this and that and you know, it's what you did to celebrate or for a special occasion. But I didn't think it would be a lifestyle and I didn't think it would be a career. But sure enough, you know, one thing led to another an assignment was given me out of the blue as a favor to a friend of a friend and then another one happened and then another and the kind of you know the epiphany the light bulb went off and I thought wow people like do this and get paid for it.
I wasn't paid much those assignments were not falling like you know manna from heaven they were far too infrequent in between but they were out there if I went looking for them so the next many decades I spent trying to make you know to cobble together some kind of work that would have my parents back home feel better by being on the road. So continuously so things are really different now with you know digital nomads and you know people living on the road for years at a time but that wasn't at all the way it was back when I was a younger writer. So but however it is you make you how you make it happen, whether it is just the occasional trip once a year once every year once every couple of months. I do think that we need to acknowledge the importance of it. because when you don't travel, the kids, the obligations work pandemic's.
When you don't travel, the more you don't travel, the more you don't travel. And then we become just we get into what is called a rut, or a groove. And also what is called a comfort zone. And it's called a comfort zone, because it's very comfortable. And we're still in our sweatpants. Netflix thing from this pandemic period, where we were excused for doing nothing for long periods of time. And that includes being very stationary, and putting your passport in your sock draw. for months and months in many people's cases. For years, the pandemic now has been quite some time. This summer has shown that Oh, my God, everybody's like back in the saddle and back raring to go this idea of revenge travel, you've
Christine Winebrenner Irick 10:57
heard Yeah. Yeah, we're getting on that. But
11:04
yeah, the travel God will show you. So it's been something crazy this past summer. And we've heard the nightmares about canceled flights and rescheduled flights that are then canceled again, and but things are settling, I think the rest of 2022 is, you know, going to continue to work itself out the entire travel industry, it seems was just kind of overwhelmed that I think next year should be interesting. But when we do start to travel again, as normal, quote, unquote, you were saying before, you know, meaningful travel. I'm hoping that that's the lesson that we've walked away with across the board, not just for travel. But during this pandemic time, when we've rediscovered or recognized or appreciated all these things that make us happy, we'd love to do that.
We want to do more now that we can, again, that when we resume, we do it with a different appreciation, you know, that we do it without, you know, being on automatic pilot or just sleepwalking through things. But you know, you're more involved, you're more aware, you're more cognizant, you're, you know, you're more careful and how you plan and how you plan to see a destiny, you know, what you want that experience to be and how what you want to bring away from it. And I believe that may not be as forefront in our heads, as we hope to think. But I do think that, that that is how things will be at least in the immediate future. You know, when the world experiences a 911, or, you know, a World War, whatever, we all come out the other end, surviving and thriving, and then that kind of fades away. So I hope that's not the case here. I hope we have long memories.
Christine Winebrenner Irick 13:03
Yeah, I really hope that it has created quite a different desire for the way that we travel and the way that we're engaging and connecting and using travel as a way to kind of see the world in a different light. And one of the things that I loved in the book, you meant you talk about seeing the world from a different perspective when we travel. And it was kind of a more literal sense, for example, like from a bird's eye view and a hot air balloon or underwater, scuba diving and snorkeling. But I do think that travel really allows us to see the world in a different way. And in those two examples, it kind of cultivates a sense of awe and wonder. How do you think travel has shifted your perspective? Well, during the
13:49
This is really silly. The first thing that came to me, but during it I like to eat. And when I travel, I try to eat like everything. I don't have a really adventurous palate. I don't eat, you know, moving things on sticks and night markets in Beijing, you know, I draw the line. But I just love you know, I'm Italian. So I love good food. And I love the social nature of spending hours over a meal where it just keeps coming and it's all homemade. And it's all more delicious than anything you could have prepared yourself at home. So over time, I've put on a few pounds during the pandemic, while you know, everybody was eating potato chips in front of the TV, and you know, rice putting in all kinds of very healthy stuff. I went on a diet and I lost many pounds.
So as you wouldn't know because you don't know me. So when I eat, it's a really big deal. And I sit down and I savor it and I enjoy it and I'm aware of everything that goes into my mouth and everything tastes particularly flavorful and rich and it's nuanced and I can taste things and I'm thinking what do you think is in this That sets it apart from the other, you know, version I had of it. And I enjoy it in a way that perhaps I hadn't before, because I always loved it, but I didn't appreciate it in this manner. So I hope that we, you know, drink it all in all of the experiences down the road that, you know, either we create for ourselves or present themselves however it is that travel comes to us because I used to, you know, sit back and wait for this very exciting life to happen to me, until I realize you need to make it happen yourself.
But I hope we do have that added layer of appreciation and awareness of how special things are, whether it's a great meal or a great sit down discussion with somebody you've just met, in a city about which you know, very little via your travel guide, your Uber driver, the waiter, you know, the girl sitting next to you at a cafe. So, um, I think that it has made me more appreciative across the board in my life and my home and my friends that suddenly we weren't seeing them, you know, zooms with your family, what was that about? zooms because I thought, well, this pandemic thing isn't going to last. I'm not a zoom person. But you know, you realize it's become the way of the present.
So, life shifts and changes and evolves over time. But what should change as well with us, is our appreciation from the return to normalcy, or an improvement of what was normal, because normalcy for many people did not include, in the case of our discussion, travel, and I hope that people see that, you know, there are no guarantees, and you've been talking about travel for the last 30 years, well, it's time to do something, you know, there's a time like now, and I'm hoping this book acts as you know, the kind of kick in the pants to have people get off that sofa, we've spent way too much time on the sofa, or in our homes. And, you know, finally get up and out because it's a big world, you know, I've been traveling a long time, and I feel that I haven't even put a dent in things. So I do hope when I come to a time when I you know, quote, unquote, slow down, that I won't have a bucket list, it's 20 pages long, because I didn't start until I retired, which so many people think is the right time to do this, that that I never understood, right?
Because of a certain age, you know, your knees are going you're not as fit as you were when you were 20 or 30. And you suddenly have grandkids to worry about. You may not have children to worry about but you have all kinds of other things to worry about. Most importantly, I think about your health because, you know, it's your, your your kind of, of a certain age when you start being more practical about being far from your doctors in a hospital and all of that. And unfortunately, it's enough to keep a lot of people home. So they live their entire lives with this bet that they're going to have the time or the effort and the money to ultimately travel, you know, later in life or when the kids are out of the house or when they retire. And suddenly that time comes and guess what? So I think we understand that the time is now and there's no time like right now in carpet Diem.
Christine Winebrenner Irick 18:36
That's what I was gonna say. I was gonna say the perfect time to travel is always right now.
18:42
Well, they say that there's another great expression: the perfect time to travel is yesterday. Yeah. Yes, that is the most perfect time for today.
Christine Winebrenner Irick 18:51
Yes. Time to travel and the time to plant a tree was yesterday. One of the quotes in the book and for people learning about the book right now is what I love, too, I love quotes. So this made me happy and took beautiful travel pictures. So that's basically you know, there's that dispersed with stories from you and stories just about kind of the ways that we can travel and why we travel. And so one of the quotes was serendipity is the best tour guide. And this was pulled in connection with an experience you had in Morocco. And speaking of you loving food, it was like this mission for you to find the best couscous. And so I wanted to ask if you could share a little bit about that story. And for me, you know, this is kind of one of the tips for traveling is asking a local is the best way to uncover the magic of the destination. So could you share a little bit about how you found the best couscous in Morocco?
19:51
Yeah, and it was, I mean, I still dream of it. Good. So we got to Casa Blanca, we had come from there. Catch in a number of other cities and we went to the airport for what we thought was our, you know, booked. Those were the days you had paper tickets actually that we had guarded with our lives and brought them to the airport. There was no plane, never a plane, it canceled, it disappeared. We still don't know what happened to that plane, but it wasn't leaving and it wasn't leaving until the next day. And suddenly, you know, our whole itinerary was upside down, because that really screwed things up. Right. Thank you very much Morocco.
We were very annoyed, but not so much. Because how bad can it be? Really? You know, I mean, how, how bad can you know, we were still vertical. And we were still healthy. And we still had our minds and wits about us. And we walked outside on the flight that was 45 minutes to Fez. We decided that's pretty close. We weren't going to walk or hitchhike. But certainly we could find some kind of taxi or car service. And we found Mohammed, who was possibly the nicest, most gentle man and all of Casa Blanca, who is going to take us there in four hours flat in this dilapidated old taxi that was held together by duct tape. I didn't know that until he walked us over to the car.
We were on our way to a Mercedes. And then he took a sharp right to like a 45 Mercedes. But anyway, um, but we said First off, however, we've been here for hours, we've been dealing with what to do with, you know, this complication, and we're starving. So we want couscous, and we want the best couscous in town thinking he'd bring us to this kind of dive, where all the taxi drivers, you know, know, is the best $3 plate of couscous in the country. And he got on his cell phone and had a very animated conversation that went on forever. And he goes, get in the car, get in the car, you know, I have the best couscous. And people love this couscous. And so we're driving and driving through traffic, and he's dodging, you know, lights. And it's crazy.
Like, they're waiting for us. And we got to the outskirts and my friend and I started, you know, exchanging side eyes and glances like, where are we going? And it turns out, he was taking us home to his mother and his wife and his two twin daughters, and the entire neighborhood who were waiting in front of a very, very, very modest home without a door where it was Friday, and it's the traditional day in the Islamic world, for a family dinner, where they don't work. And they all sit around the table. And they have this big pyramid of couscous, that takes hours and hours to prepare. And we sat down and we're treated like family, like royalty, really more so than family. And the two girls spoke French because Morocco used to be a French colony.
And they're studying it in school. And the neighborhood found this all very comical, and would find reasons to kind of walk in and borrow something and, you know, give us a nod and a big smile and then walk out and then three minutes later, somebody else would walk in and bring back a book that they had never borrowed and you know, that kind of thing. So it was probably the one takeaway experience of having our entire trip to Morocco, totally unprogrammed and unpredicted. And really this element of serendipity, you need to just hope befalls you because it's often what leads to some of the best and most memorable experiences ever. And you know, you learn things and you see things and you test things in this case that you just just aren't available to you otherwise.
So you know, you plan, you plan your book, you've got everything laid out. And it's true. And I'm like that I have to be and I enjoy being that I at least have some kind of skeleton of a program or an itinerary. But the more I travel, the more I leave big gaping holes and kind of you know, manifest. Okay, come to me. And I'm ready to experience anything. What should I see? And yeah, serendipity is a pretty cool thing. I remember reading about the origin of the world and what the word meant. And now I've totally forgotten. I think it was a person's name, like Prince SERENDIP or something. I don't know. But whoever we owe it to. It's a wonderful word and it should always be part of our travel plans.
Christine Winebrenner Irick 24:57
Yeah, it's one of my very favorite words. So I actually don't know the origin. So I'll have to look that up. But I think that the real magic of travel always happens in the space between the things that we think are important. And so leaving space in your itinerary, I think is one of the most important things that we can do. And I know it's hard as Western travelers that often have limited time and limited budget. And we want to make sure we're always getting the most bang for our buck and crossing things off the list. But I think those moments, like you just described, are the ones that we're actually going to remember, we're probably going to forget the museum that we stood in the line for and then you know, this thing and that thing, and, but that connection, and that unique experience, that's really what is so important, I think about travel. And that's the thing that shapes us the most, and I think really is why we why we travel,
25:50
For sure, I think that travelers are hesitant for an understandable reason. But once you kind of settled into your destination, and you realize you're not going to be kidnapped, and you're not going to wind up in a slave market, or people aren't out to, you know, steal your money or rip off your passport. But in the same breath, I always need to kind of, you know, reel it in, because you do need to be cautious. And you know, I'm from New York City, so I'm sure I have a certain don't mess with me, too, you know, like, stand your ground.
But there's also such a thing, as you know, that sincere and authentic connection with people, where if you're a good judge of character, the sincerity just oozes from, you know, you know, when the invitation or the possibility comes from the heart. And it's not some kind of manipulative, organized rip off or scheme or scam that, you know, the whole city's out to get you. Um, a lot of people just never leave the hotel lobby. And you know, that's a shame for me. But at the same time, if the alternative for them is to never leave home, then let them come with the group and stay in the hotel lobby until the group leaves at 915.
And then, you know, go off with your, your newfound family, because look what's you know, otherwise, they would be doing, you know, like home at the bingo hall, or, you know, mowing the grass. So it's all good, ultimately. But I think the more you travel, and the more you become relaxed with the way that travel can be so many different things. And the difference between one destination and another because not all destinations, or New York City, or not all destinations, or, you know, like Tokyo, they're not all intimidating, they're not all welcoming, they're not all easy to navigate, they're not all impossible to you know, so.
So um, you just go with the flow. And each destination is quite unique and quite different. And you'll never see it all, you'll never see it all. I can just, you know, have been there. And I thought I can't even hear that, because it just is like nails on the chalkboard, you haven't seen it all. And you'll never have done all of that. So don't even run that by me, because I don't subscribe to that at all.
Christine Winebrenner Irick 28:21
Yeah, I think even if you went to the same place over and over and over, if you're open to it, you're going to experience something different every single time. And even if you enjoy experiencing the same thing over and over, it's going to feel different every time so and like you said, people really can find where their comfort zone is, and maybe push themselves just to take one step past that. But that doesn't mean that if that one step is like getting coffee across the street from the hotel without the group, great, like, that's going to be something again, that's going to really be exhilarating, and you're gonna feel so accomplished for doing that. And then the next time you travel, you might choose to go get dinner without the group. And then you know, it's just a kind of building that comfort and travel really allows for us to kind of do that. So I think it's great to honor this thing. People are
29:13
something I often see and hear and it's, it warms my heart because it's very, very, very sweet. But people will share with me what they've done on their own. And you can tell that it's something new to them. And it's something about which they're very proud. And you can tell that it's really turned their life around. And it's often you know, is because of travel or has to do with travel. And it often has to do with you know, going, as you said, going beyond what's comfortable, you know, they've really pushed it and they've really pushed themselves and they've kind of shocked the people back home.
You can just tell you know, it's about the time they went to wherever and this is what they did. And they puffed up with a certain pride and you know that you know, it happened 20 years ago and they're still reading and embracing it. And it made a big difference. And I really respect that because I have equal respect for people who do it a second nature and don't think twice about getting on a plane alone and going to another city and, you know, going out and having coffee or dinner or breakfast or everything, but it's the people to whom it does not come naturally. But they make the effort and that effort winds up coming back, you know, quadruple fold. And it's very, it's very heartwarming to me, because they know that I'll appreciate it, or they hope that I'll appreciate it, because, you know, we have this mutuality of travel. But it's very nice. And I see myself in them.
That was me, you know, 20 years ago, or 40 years ago. And I spent a lot of time in my hotel room because I was scared to death of what was out there. But exhilarated by the potential of what was out there, it was a real dichotomy. So you just need to find what is going to make you comfortable, but challenged enough so that you will leave home, but return in one piece.
Christine Winebrenner Irick 31:04
That's a healthy balance to find. Well, there's one more quote that I really wanted to share from the book. And then I have a few rapid fire questions that I always end the podcast with. So the quote is, from Pico Iyer, who is a travel writer that I love, he writes so beautifully about traveling abroad. It is a place where we stay up late, follow impulses, and find ourselves as wide open as when we are in love. And so I just think that's such a great quote for talking about why we traveled that wide openness and that connection. How do you think that travel allows that opening to come? Or where have you noticed that opening?
31:47
Well, I have this thing about Italy, you may have, I don't know, picked up on that, but I used to write guide books about Venice. And Venice is not Italy. It's not part of Italy. It's not part of Europe. It exists in its own universe. And it's very intimidating, especially for a non Venetian. And I was writing guidebooks about a city that was a real enigma to me, much one of the quotes because I, like you love quotes, was about Venice, specifically, because many of these quotes are Venice specific versus more generic quotes, and it just was went on, and I don't even remember it. That's how much I loved it about, you know, this lifelong love affair with Venice. And I thought, yeah, that's what I'm in. I'm in the middle of a love of Venice.
And I don't understand it at all. But it's a mystery. And it's the allure. And it's the promise of everything that Venice gives me that I so love, and why I go back in time. And again, and again. And again, even once these assignments stopped, and the guidebook thing was behind me. And I would go back again, repeatedly, even though I had no reason it wasn't really on my schedule, and it wasn't close by, and I would make the effort. And I would go sometimes for an afternoon, and sometimes, you know, for a weekend or a week, but I understand why certain destinations just draw us, and reasons that are very different.
And for reasons that oftentimes we can't explain or put on paper, but there's that mysticism, you know, former lives, is it, you know, just by chance, is it something inherent about its history, or its smell, or its its? It's in the case of Venice, this labyrinth in the midst of the, you know, the mystery of it all? Or what is it that draws a particular traveler to a particular place with such a stronghold? That doesn't exist for other people? I mean, how many people hate Venice, they would never go back if you paid them, that that quote, people a year really had me remember the adrenaline in the sense of being in love with Evelyn places and destinations and how, you know, they just immediately draw you in when the person you're traveling with maybe is like, Yeah, I think it's time to leave. And you're just finally getting into it. So it does become a real exchange between the place and the visitor. And we are the interloper.
We are the outsider, you know, which is all new to us. And if you can kind of feel that you get a little bit beyond that and you become a little bit of a local, but a whole lot of foreigner, then you've struck that sweet spot because it's all still new to you, but you're comfortable enough with it, that you understand it in ways that the traveler who's there for 10 minutes is never going to be able to say they have Uh, so not all places are like that, you know, we all have our favorite places. And it's tough to explain why sometimes, you know, if you're asked that question and you give a destination as an answer, you'll get a lot of nods. And a lot of times people will just gloss over because they're thinking really I didn't like what I said, he didn't do anything for me. And here, you're, you know, counting the days until you can return again. So travel is a very, very personal thing.
Christine Winebrenner Irick 35:31
It is, I think, a new quote that just has arisen is that travel is just a love affair with the world. I think that's a great way of thinking about travel. Well, Patricia, I know that you are on a timeline today because you are promoting your new book. So I don't think we can jump into the rapid fire questions because I only did that next time rapid fire ish, and they're always more ish than rapid. So yes, next time, we'll have to come back. I'd love to be able to bring you back. But thank you so much for coming to share about your book and for helping us to understand what's behind all of those reasons why we travel.
36:12
Oh, thank you. Thanks very much. You're a kindred spirit. I can tell you to enjoy it.
Christine Winebrenner Irick 36:33
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