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dear fellow traveler – THANK YOU!

as i rushed from my late-arriving airplane from Barcelona to Zürich on Tuesday, i met a fellow traveler who was attempting to make the same ridiculously tight connection back to Boston. it was easy for him to discover we were in the same predicament when i started freaking out on the plane upon arrival in Switzerland. YES! i was one of ‘those people’ who jumped up before we even got to the gate and barraged the flight attendant with “will i make this connection?” “will they hold the plane?” she was all, “no big deal, you spaz!” WHATEVER. if my plane-mate and i hadn’t sprinted from the farthest terminal of A to E through the Zürich airport, i’m quite sure we wouldn’t have made our flight.

in any case, our race against each other on who’d get to the boarding gate first bonded us to an extent. then, when we arrived and as they were full on boarding the plane (no time for a bathroom break or to buy any coveted Swiss chocolates for us) we were then each individually given the ole “you’ve been pre-selected for extra screening”. READ you and your bags will now be molested. at least they had to deal with my sweaty self from my marathon sprint. HA – serves them right! this little incident made us laugh as the two of us, while we might be troublemakers, are far from sketchy looking terrorists.

so, after our half-day return flight from Europe to Boston, now the joke was whether our bags made the tight connection. my plane-mate, Adam, got his bag immediately – lucky bastard. but he kindly waited to see if i’d have the same luck. as we waited we chatted a bit and he asked me “what’s your favorite travel spots you’ve visited to so far?” SUCH A GREAT YET TOUGH QUESTION!!! i really appreciate him asking me this. it got me thinking and made me discover something new about myself. well, sort of.

i said to him that is difficult to answer and it depends on the type of travel experience you’re looking for. i know you all recognize i am a self-professed POSHAHOLIC. so my go-to answer is typically “heaven on earth is St. Barts.” it’s like the perfect place in my mind. AND while i do adore it and dream about it all the time, the question made me realize it’s not my favorite place anymore.

my favorite travel spots are the places that i know the least about and have no expectation of. like Budapest, Curacao and Cambodia to name a few. it’s NO SECRET that i love to travel. but i realized through answering Adam’s simple question that what makes me love a place is being pleasantly surprised in the unknown. the adventure of taking it all in and discovering it from my perspective.

i had already decided after my Cambodia trip that i need to travel at least once a year to somewhere i’ve never been. it’s good for learning and pushing myself and, let’s face it, i don’t have a lifetime of travel ahead so i gotta take advantage of the years i do have to discover all the wonderful places in the world that will touch me. BUT i didn’t recognize is HOW important this is to me. HOW i actually might love it more than the incredibly perfect and posh St. Barts. MY FAVORITE PLACE is quite possibly a place i haven’t been!

the takeaway?

1) this princess might not be so prissy after all since some of my favorite places are quite rough around the edges

2) it has to be top priority to seek this kind of travel out to keep me growing

3) i hope that Adam reads my blog as promised & comments because i’d like to say thank you for asking such a simple yet thought-provoking question

4) and THANKS for waiting with me until i FINALLY got my enormous bag off the luggage belt – phew

XO – lola