Timing is everything! Hand warmers or fans? Pick your poison

When dealing with real estate, location is everything.  When dealing with travel, timing is a key element. 

Summer in Italy?  New Year’s in Paris? Maybe not the best timing.  Less people, yes, but extreme temperatures -- Had a great time in those places at those times, but Spring or Fall anywhere would probably be the best time to go.  

I have spent New Year’s in Paris - standing under the Eiffel Tower with a few hundred of my newest closest friends.  It was a tad bit frigid and hand warmers were a necessity.  I will never forget that night, nor the immigrant taxi driver trying to keep his kids warm.   

A month in Croatia and Italy can be a great experience. During July?  If you learn the words Troppo Caldo because they appear on the TV news every night, it might mean it’s a tad bit sweltering out.  I will always remember sweating it out in Herculaneum. And hiking up Mt. Vesuvius early in order to beat the heat.

Like Goldilocks -- you would think I would have learned by now.  Springtime in New Zealand and Fall in New Orleans - those were perfect weather trips.  Not too cold and not too hot. 

Sometimes the weather can make the trip more memorable.  Walking in the snow in the Versailles Gardens/ Central Park - walks and moments that will not ever be forgotten.  Swimming in a Sorrento pool/ Hanging out in San Marco Square  in the Italian summer heat, it was so hot you could almost see the heat in the air all around you.  You could feel it and remember that sensation and the view of looking up at a daunting Italian Riviera train station staircase with your 30 pound backpack. 

Coming from the Deep South, heat and humidity are a part of my daily life (even in Winter).  But unlike some places, we have great investments in air conditioning.  Lots of European countries invest more in heating than in air conditioning.  One of the best souvenirs I have from Croatia is a little handheld fan I received free at an outdoor music festival :)  It came in very handy when it was Troppo Caldo. 

When planning your next adventure, just keep in mind that in addition to the place you are going and who you are going with -- a key element of your trip is the weather -- so if you plan a trip to Oregon in October, bring a rain poncho because 40 days and nights of rain is biblical.  Extreme weather might “make” your dream trip more memorable.  Keep a positive attitude and enjoy the extremes. 

Hand warmers I can buy and hit the snowy Parisian streets.  Troppo Caldo or not, I would enjoy a return to Italy even in a July.  Bring on the extremes, it makes a great part of the story!

Search the Globe...

When my brother and I were little, we had a globe.  Our dad and mom used to give us a country’s name and then we had to find it.  Playing Search the Globe was fun -- and being 3 years older, I could beat my brother most of the time ;)  We learned so much about World Geography in relation to where we lived.  

Our grandparents gave us books on far away places --- France (Madeliene),  Africa (Rudyard Kipling), England (knights and dragons).  We watched movies --- Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Rescuers Down Under, Blue Hawaii.  Teachers exposed us to Christmas around the world and taught us how to do the Hula.  How could a little girl from the South, not want to travel and experience different cultures?  

I was about 13 when my family first ventured from the South.... to Colorado.  I can still remember my first response when I saw the Rocky Mountains (majestic -- is the only word to describe it, just like the song).  We went up the mountain in "white out" and my dad kept saying as he was driving "those are just bugs hitting the windows".  Yeah pop, right? Ha ha.  The Sundown Motel was a beacon in the night on that trip.  Dad took my brother and me on a snowmobile trip over the Continental Divide in a snowstorm on Thanksgiving day - Awesome trip.

My next trip "out of the South" was to California with a school group and two of my closest childhood friends.  I hadn't been on a plane since I was a baby until then.  A giddy 15 year old headed to LA, What was my mom thinking.  We meet boys from Canada (asked them if they had cable TV, how naive can you get?), Jamaica, and Pennsylvania (they all talked funny and told us we were the ones with accents - bless their sweet hearts).   For three little girls from Louisiana, Los Angeles from a bus window was a wonderland.

Since then, I have traveled extensively throughout the US and even went away to college  ---  Texas (a whole different country in the US).  At college, I met a kindred spirit.  He asked me to go backpacking through Europe.  I wasn’t that brave -- then.   If he could do it, I could (it's a competitive thing). Because of him, I became brave and adventurous and found my favorite country, Scotland.   I went to visit him while he was in school there.  It was my first non North American journey.  14 days in picturesque Scotland, what a way to peak a future world traveler’s interest. 

The cementing for my wanderlust was the best site in Europe, the first time I realized I was IN Europe -- exiting the Trocadero Metro station and seeing the Eiffel Tower in Paris.  I have traveled extensively in Europe - even backpacking and roughing it.  I also wandered down to New Zealand and took a road trip.  So many countries and continents, so little time.

Spinning the Globe now... Where to go next?

First real blog -- Something not worth doing is worth not doing well.

Hi, ya'll!
Introductions, s'il vous plait.  Shockingly, I am from a Southern U.S. State (with a name like Magnolia and an accent as thick as mine, what could one expect?).  While I love to travel, I still love to come home.

In my profession, I get to write quite a bit, but not like this.  Blogging will be a good way to share my travel/life experiences with family and friends.  I consider life an adventure and try to make the most out of it that I can.  Everyday brings new experiences, but I adore going on adventures where I am away from home and experiencing new and different cultures.

The adventures that I will refer to in my blog will be adventures to places other than my hometown and with my hometown job stresses and life (no one would believe what I see and hear everyday anyway-- that would be for another blog and would require many signed legal releases on the part of too many people I work for and with).

With my job, I have a little too much stress.  It feels overwhelming most days and my adventures are ways to jettison that stress.  To a friend,  I once compared that I take on everyone's problems like a sponge.  That sponge turns black and blacker with every problem. (I even ask people sometime, "What headache are you going to give me today?" Not the most appropriate question to ask someone who will be paying me, but it lightens the mood. They have a headache about their problems and would love to give it away.)

An adventure allows me to wring out that sponge and make it new again.  Or another way to put it, is that I play "whack a gopher" every day and an adventure is getting to back away from the game somewhat.  The longer the adventure/trip the newer the sponge is to go back to the grindstone.

My adventuresome nature comes from my close family --  wonderful parents (Dad and Mom), brother, and sister (I will refer to them as JR and Princess).  I have a wonderful grandfather and had amazing grandmothers and an amazing Papaw. Fortunately I was even able to know two great grandmothers and a great grandfather (we have good genes in my family - better make sure I have good retirement and insurance).

You could say gypsy blood runs in my family.  Most of my family on both sides came over prior to the Revolutionary War (I am a DAR member on the paternal and maternal side).

While living in London, I was asked what type of American I was, French, Italian, German etc.  I said I was a true American mutt  -- that we know of, a mix of Scottish, English, French, Swiss, Swedish and German, with some American Indian thrown in there for a little spice.

My grandparents traveled for work and fun.  (My Little Mammaw, ie a great grandmother, even got to travel extensively in post war Europe and Japan -- her nickname was Cricket, because she was always on the go and had a charismatic personality, like her only granddaughter and three great granddaughters.)

Dad and Mom took us on many a family vacation.  Road trips were their specialties, a two day drive to Colorado, New Mexico or Maine was no big deal. (I do prefer to fly and get there but love to travel in a vehicle if the country is small like Italy, France or New Zealand.)  Never a dull moment on our vacations.  The Griswolds just thought they had interesting times.

In the South, they say a good story always starts with "Bubba, hold my beer and watch this".... Hopefully I can supply some good stories.... so, Bubba, bear with me and hold my beer....
Ciao for now.
Magnolia Gypsy