Travels: Photographs & Memories

You Can't Take It With You

Jan 25, 2006

To entice people to my website, I hang out in online travel forums (Fodors.com, virtualtourist.com) and answer any questions I usefully can about Italy. It's interesting - and sometimes alarming - to read the questions and comments. I try not to be a travel snob, but I can't help wondering at the lengths to which people will go to have/do the same things in foreign countries that they have at home. The man who can't get through a day without six cans of Mountain Dew (a soft drink virtually unknown outside the US), and the kids who are so accustomed to drinking soft drinks with dinner that, in Europe, their beverages cost as much as the rest of the meal (no free refills!). People who have to have a full "American" breakfast, and then eat dinner by 6 pm (most restaurants in Italy don't open til 7:30 pm).

I'm trying to think of anything I haven't cheerfully done without when travelling, at least for brief periods. Hot water, I guess. My hair is very fine and gets oily very quickly, so if I can't wash it every morning, it irritates me all day. But I don't care if I have to wash in a trickle of water in the sink, and in a pinch I can even wash in cold water (not willingly, or gratefully, I confess, except when the alternative is no wash at all).

With food, I'm usually more interested in sampling the local specialties than sticking to what I know. A hotel I've stayed at a few times in Delhi provides a huge breakfast buffet with both a full western breakfast (sausages, eggs, toast) and south Indian food - idlis and vadas. The first morning I stayed there, I pounced on the latter, happy to reacquaint myself with some old favorites. The waiter attending the buffet looked at me round-eyed: "You eat that? You like Indian food?" Just try to keep me away from it!