Porthole

What the guide books don't mention

PROMPT March 8th

Where are some unusual places you’ve been?
What was the most interesting or surprising thing
you learned or discovered about those places?

I've been to 43 countries. I had plans to travel in 2020 and add new places. I was supposed to be in Morocco this time last year. Now I've saved up money and still can't travel.

What's an unusual place? Bigfoot Motel? With a mummified example?

So my List of Five will be different, as in "what matters to me."

1. Friendliness of Serbians, especially in Beograd. American forces bombed Serbia in the 1990s. I felt no hostility. Which seems a bit odd because in the Balkans it seems that everyone hates everyone. The Serbian-Kosovar and Serbian-Croatian-Bosniak divides run deep and still makes the area dangerous. But not everyone holds onto a grudge. Never assume people won't like you.

2. Speaking Norwegian in the Balkans. Me buying cheese and counting out the coins: ein, to, tre, fire... and having a young man ask me whether I was Norwegian. Speaking Norwegian in Norway or Sweden and folks thinking I'm a (damn) Swede (my forefathers were). Speaking Norwegian at the hostel in Skodra, Albania... family in Norway. Speaking it in Kosovo and Edith understands me because she worked with Swedes for years.

Ordering in Spanish in Stockholm, Sweden; conversing in Spanish in the hostel in Nara, Japan. Chatting in French in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. Portuguese on the ferry to Geiranger in Norway... never assume that people won't understand you if you switch languages.

3. Going back to places I'd been before and having people remember me: Lagos, Solvorn, Lillehammer, Taipei, Tainan, Jiufen, Montezuma, Lisboa, Prishtina, Ciudad Quesada, Orosi, Beograd. I had given a gift in Pristina in a hand-painted paper bag. It was up by the entrance when I went back. Small things ... never assume that you won't see people again. Advice: always treat people nice.

4. Feeling safe in Japan, Taiwan, Norway... most everywhere except Cape Town. The US is probably the most dangerous place I've ever visited. Everyone is utterly safe in Japan by-the-way. Everyone. It would be culturally unacceptable to do anything to harm a visitor or stranger. As long as you do not have tattoos like the yakuza (gangs). Never assume that strangers won't help you. Never assume that you need to be afraid.

5. Markets and restaurants in Prishtina, Dubai (suq), Nis, Tainan, Taipei (night markets), Chiayi, Istanbul (huge!)... Markets are wonderful places for a cultural experience. McDonalds and WalMart aren't. The small buyers and sellers know their wares whether it be a pile of peppers in Prishtina or eating turkey-rice in Chiayi. Do not fear strange food.