Miscellaneous Forum

I was listening to BBC Radio 4's Travel programme earlier today and was struck by something the guest speaker said. She was the editor/owner of Wanderlust Magazine. She said it was often the occasional, unplanned and unexpected events and experiences of her many trips abroad that made them so much more memorable and enjoyable. This made me think of what recent experiences had added to my own trips that made them particularly worthwhile.
I guess like me, fellow VT members, enjoy planning their visits home and abroad. Maybe these trips could be 'lightened up' a little more and with less planning to give us the chance of capturing those special, unexpected moments that we'd not imagined would occur.
Thinking back over recent trips my unplanned magic moments would be:
the church organ recital in Lubeck, Germany,

Sorry hit the tab key and it posted my message before I'd finished!

other unplanned experiences would be:
looking for the Egyptian restaurant in the back streets of Luxor with all the smells and authenticity of the real Egypt away from the tourist trail

and the Market square in Easingwold, North Yorkshire - a place I'd never heard of but was really charming.

What would be your unplanned and unexpected travel experiences?
Mike

falling in to a manhole in medan/indonesia 3 days ago and injuring both my legs pretty badly while covering myself in a bundle of sh/t is something i will remember for a while.
pretty crap when it happend but quite funny when looking back at it :O)

Poor Claus!

Some of mine:

Being unexpectedly shut inside the Baptistery in Pisa (a bit disconcerting at the time) and then hearing the curator demonstrate the acoustics. Entirely unexpected and totally spine-tingling (video just had to be uploaded to VT).

Watching a 'bonxie' (Great Skua) trying to bring down a gull on Rousay (gull escaped eventually, wonderful acrobatics) and watching another bonxie succeed (by drowning the gull) on Mainland.

Discovering a totally wonderful cafe inside the nave of a (still functioning) Medieval Hereford church.

Wow - those Bonxies are really scary birds - and enormous. I remember seeing them in Shetland years ago. That reminds me being dive bombed by Terns was unplanned - just out for seashore walk and all of a sudden swamped by terns who were presumably nesting nearby.

I'd like to know more about the Herefordshire church .
Thanks,
Mike

http://www.cafeatallsaints.co.uk/

Sort-of planned (but totally magical anyway) was my visit to Deerhurst (Glos). The best Anglo-Saxon curch (and a spearate chapel) I've ever seen....and Id never heard of it before. Even better, I was entirely alone whilst I explored.

Great question. I think with the amount of information available to us, many of us (including me) tend to over-plan. I'm trying to work on that.

My best unplanned experience happened in Darjeeling. My husband and I had been there for a few days. We had visited a few monasteries but I hadn't seen any monks. On our last day we stopped at Druk Sangak Choeling Monastery. We were outside taking some pictures and realized the monks were getting ready for prayers. Two monks came over to us and invited us inside. They gave us 2 mats and as we sat on the cold, hard floor I was absoultely enchanted with the "ceremony" going on around us. I was mesmerized by the chanting and never wanted to leave. Although we tried to be inconspicuous (ha ha), we drew enough attention that we felt we were a little disruptive so we forced ourselves to leave. It was so amazing - like being part of a secret club.

Number One for me would be getting locked inside Blarney Castle at closing !!!!It was late on a wet dreary day and we passed the (bored) "castle-keep" playing squash in an empty room as we made our way to the top to kiss the stone. When we returned the iron front gate in the brick outer wall was pulled shut and LOCKED !! We looked about for a logical way out and tried not to panic when we realized the walls were too high to scale. Finally someone drove by in an official vehicle and waved back when we waved through the bars and yelled. He stopped and let us out and to this day we wonder if it was just the guys having a laugh on us...
Did the same backstreet stroll that you did in Luxor one evening when our native guide took us to find a liquor store off the beaten path - - one of the highlights of the Nile cruise for sure ... and see, it enriches your life in many ways to have that evening wine !
Impromptu walks over the hills of the Amalfi Coast away from the tourist hot spots really enhanced my "view" of that area also. Exploring the lemon orchards and back alleys of lesser known towns made me feel I was seeing the real Italy.
Oh, and I can't forget the time I was touring the San Antonio TX missions; it must have been a Sunday morning and I will never forget sneaking into one that was holding an active service, complete with mariachi band. As I stood in the back soaking it all in I occasionally would catch the eye of an approving local who was enjoying my enjoyment of a moment of their usual life...
You really do have more special unexpected moments when you venture off the beaten path.

Well that is definately the Oahu North Shore experience for me in Feb 2003 .
It was one of THE most exiting days ever for me .
I took a $1 50 Bus trip up to the North Shore and I witnessed the best surfing anywhere ,or maybe second best ,I don;t know but it was AWESOME .
I Video taped probably an hour of surfing out there and I just made an nice Video of it which I posted a few days ago .
There have been more but I can;t recall right now .

Hansi

showing up just in time to see Calcio Storico in Florence and all the pomp and ceremony that goes with it. I'd planned and planned that trip but had never noticed there was going to be a game (even though it was something I'd wanted to see for years!) just goes to show that pre-planning only goes so far - go with the flow!

plus, there are all the people you meet along the way in ways you couldn't possibly plan. Last year I found myself in a packed pub in Paris with 3 people I'd never seen before that morning and all of us knew that we'd found something very cool.

There have been some terrific contributions about your unplanned but magical moments that have occurred when travelling.

Carrie - sorry but the Calcio thingy - what is it?

I think it is the people you can meet on the way that are often the real treasure.
This is what the editor of Wanderlust was saying on the radio programme this morning. Going with the flow and following your nose was her advice for some of the time and it seems they can lead you to some great moments.

Keep the stories coming......this is great.
Mike

Mike - "Calcio Storico" is roughly translated "historic football." It's a once a year tournament in Florence to commemorate the history of the city and it's a marvelous time.

They fill one of the piazzas (Santa Croce) with sand and set up huge stadium seating. It's all rather violent and very Florentine! The spring I lived in Florence I had to leave just a few days before the games. So, imagine my surprise when I was back in the city last summer and just stumbled upon it...

:)

We were exploring the small S. Turkish town of Kalkan, when we came across a wedding procession, complete with camels. The families invited us into the large outdoor tent, and we watched the whole ceremony, followed by hours of music, dancing, and plenty of food and Turkish tea. The people couldn't have been nicer to us strangers, and everyone had a great time.

I had a couple different moments on a trip to europe many moons ago.......

One moment was finding out about a free music festival next to the Cathederal in Cologne, Germany that I didn't know about, making me now spend the night there, in which they ended it with the lights being turned out in the square, the lights on in the cathederal, and the organ music being "piped" outside for us to hear. So fantastic.

Another moment was in Salzburg, Austria touring the Salt Mines just outside of town. While waiting for our miner's cars to take us down, an American Choir touring Europe was in the group behind us and decided to practice a song while waiting. I about burst into tears it was so beautiful.

Magicaltravelexperiencesmark.

Well, come to think of it, that is the way I have done almost all my travel over the past 39-1/2 years! I first emigrated from Baltimore to Australia on my own, via passenger ship and didn't know anyone, have a job or a place to stay when I got there.

Then, 2 yrs later on my first trip thru Asia; 10 wks, by myself, all I did was book the air ticket routing and the first night in each place and went from there. Of course, I poured over books and brochures ahead of time to learn about and know in general what I wanted to do.

And even now, planning my next 5-week trip to Europe; I have the air tickets (using FF this time, so have to go in and out of the same city), and have been able to finally find 2 wks timeshare in 2 dif countries, and will book the first few days hotel, as we arrive in Paris on Good Friday (any suggestions before I spend more time looking??), and also book a car where needed; but am leaving it up to when we get there as to how we fill in getting from one timeshare in Leiwen, Germany to the next one near Andorra, Spain, 10 days later.

So, with a lot of travel in all those yrs, I too have a lot of special little stories; I guess the greatest one is how I met my husband 32 years ago TODAY! in Singapore, after having sat at the same table with him and 8 other strangers, in Sydney, Australia three months earlier, at a Marine Corps 'Birthday' Ball!

Additional to my first posting here, about meeting my husband: neither of us knew that we would run into each other again in Singapore! but we have been together ever since!

That's a great story! And, happy "anniversary"!

Carrie, muchas gracias!! and our 30th wedding anniversary is on 25MAY this yr.

having a snake .... no two snakes cross my path during a hike on Grandfather mountain. I certainly would never plan that!

Meeting an old school pal while shopping in London.... small world

(1) I was standing at a traffic light in Havana, photographing the amazing vintage cars as they passed by, when my elbow was tapped, and an elderly gent, who was selling peanuts wrapped up in newspaper nearby, insisted on giving me a bag of his peanuts! He would not take money and, to this day, though I thanked him profusely, I am very sorry that I did not do more. (2) Staying in the Nacionale Hotel in Havana and finding out that the Buena Vista Social Club, were giving a concert in the hotel - and residents were admitted for free!!! (3) I was killing time in Chester, U.k., walking around the Cathedral Cloisters when a choir started singing in one of the practice rooms - spine tingling. (4) I was hitch-hiking in Sardinia in the '70's, with a girlfriend and very little money, when a man giving us a lift offered us the use of his holiday home which stood in a magical bay, on stilts over the sea with his speed boat moored beneath. Though I was initially suspicious (security, perhaps he had eyes for girlfriend etc) it turned out to be a completely generous offer.

this thread prompted me to start a section on my homepage for experiences like the ones we describe. ..it's been really fun looking back on my favorite parts of traveling.

thanks for the inspiration!

On one of my early trip to Sri Lanka, while riding a train south from Colombo, a young man started up a conversation with me, but he spoke very little English and that's all I spoke. He invited me to his home in Beruwela, saying his father was an Ayurvedic doctor there.
So I went, and it was true, and although his parents spoke NO English, they were overwhelmingly hospitable, serving me my first taste of 'King Coconut' water to drink, which is very special and most delicious; giving me a complete tour of his herbal pharmacy, and then his dear mother presented me with a bracelet of carved elephants!!!

Another trip, up in Jaffna, a young couple approached me while I was at the reception desk of a hotel to check in. They did speak good English, said they had a brother who was in the States, and invited me home.
Again, I went, and they gave me their bedroom (and they slept on the floor of the living room) and I stayed 2 nights. They took me all around the area, even up to Kayts; and as it was Deepavali, I also was included in festivities similar to our THANKSGIVING. They were surprised, of course, when I too ate with my fingers and relished eating each and every dish, no matter how hot and wasn't adversely/negatively affected!
They remained friends for years, but after the clashes of Tamil Tigers, I lost contact with them and have no idea of their fates, but those few days remain a very special memory to me; friendship across cultural divides.