Behind every great travel blogger are the great travel memoirs that inspired them. Here are a few of our favorites...shout outs to:
*MAIDEN VOYAGE, by Tania Aebe.
She was an eighteen-year-old dropout and barfly, going nowhere until her father offered her a challenge. He would offer her either a college education or a twenty-six-foot sloop in which she had to sail around the world alone. She chose the boat and for two years it was her home, as she negotiated weather, illness, fear, and ultimately, a spiritual quest that brought her home to herself...(source: Amazon.com).
*AVOIDING PRISON AND OTHER NOBLE VACATION GOALS, by Wendy Dale. Bored with her writer's job (and the corporate cafeteria's weekly specials) at Hughes Aircraft, Dale takes a vacation to see a friend living in Beirut. Hooked by the heady adrenaline rush of danger mixed with exotic people, she then goes to Cuba and Costa Rica. And though she finds a boyfriend at each stop, it's when Dale visits a prison in Costa Rica that she falls in love with a Columbian man on the inside, and it will change her life.
EAT PRAY LOVE, by Elizabeth Gilbert
Plagued with despair after a nasty divorce, Gilbert, in her early 30s, divides a year equally among three dissimilar countries, exploring her competing urges for earthly delights and divine transcendence. First, pleasure: savoring Italy's buffet of delights—the world's best pizza, free-flowing wine and dashing conversation partners—Gilbert consumes la dolce vita as spiritual succor. Then, prayer and ascetic rigor: seeking communion with the divine at a sacred ashram in India, Gilbert emulates the ways of yogis in grueling hours of meditation, struggling to still her churning mind. Finally, a balancing act in Bali, where Gilbert tries for equipoise "betwixt and between" realms, studies with a merry medicine man and plunges into a charged love affair.
*HONEYMOON WITH MY BROTHER, Franz Wisner
Jilted by his fiancee mere days before the wedding and demoted at work, Wisner collared his brother, Kurt, a Seattle Realtor, to celebrate his Costa Rican nonhoneymoon. That experience, with the help of a Saab purchase in Sweden, grew into subsequent lengthy trips to Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Sandwiched between the chuckles are letters to their grandmother and short, pointed chapters on best trip advice--for instance, attend a professional soccer match to understand culture--and some good lessons in hustling (bid against yourself, pretend there's a language barrier, among others).
The biting, frigid wind couldn't stop The Lost Girls today as we zoomed (along with Grand Master Patrick, our fabulous photog) to the top of the Library Hotel on Madison Avenue. The setting couldn't have been more perfect for taking headshots; even on a mostly cloudy February day, we still snagged enough sunlight to snap several rolls of film. Realized once we got there just how lucky we were to find Patrick; he'd come uber-prepared with all kinds of fun gizmos: light meters, tripods and not one, but two super high tech cameras! Jen was a natural (barely any coaching needed), Holly was 100 percent demure in her shots (no toothy grins for her!) and I have no clue how I looked, for obvious reasons. Guess I'll find out tomorrow, when Patrick emails the digital pix.
The only wrench in the works came at the end of the shoot. Up until that point, we'd had the entire 14th floor (a boutique space with several different salons and solariums) to ourselves. Some janitor must have caught on that we were engaging in unsanctioned picture taking, because he clearly ratted us out to the general manager. I mustered up as much "we are totally supposed to be here" authoritativeness, but he let carry on after we promised to scram in 20 minutes. We kept our word, and no harm, no foul. --Amanda
