When I Win the Lottery

Training note: Today is Sunday. My knee hurts, my back hurts, and I am stiff. Exercise, what a concept. Today I am giving myself leave to not put the pedometer on, just walk as much as I can and not think about it. Three days of this and I was obsessing, so a break is in order. Sundays will be my day of rest.

Travel thoughts: If I won the lottery, I would spend a year or so - maybe more - traveling. I love to travel. Not in a five planets in seven days kind of way; all that is is check-listing. The Louvre? Check. Big Ben? Check. Sydney Opera House? Check. It becomes rush, rush, rush - take a look, take a photo, what's next? My kind of travel is to plant myself in a city for five or six days and really take it in. The least I'm comfortable with is two nights, and I tend to reserve that for places I've been before.

But if I won the lottery? I would stretch each of those stays into two weeks, a month. Set up a base and roam around it. Rent a little apartment - it doesn't have to be huge, a studio is fine, a place with a kitchen and a bed and a bathroom and I'm good - and see all I can see, then head out into the surrounding area and see that. Sure, I would probably pop back here every little bit. Sometimes you just need your own bed, your posse, your family, to keep your equilibrium. But mostly I would travel.

I would send my friends tickets to meet me places. Erik and Bob would get tickets to London most likely. Sharon and Mitch would meet me in France. Geoff and I would hang out in Australia. Kent would end up in wine country somewhere. Marilee would come to Ireland. In between I would just go where I wanted. The best trips to me are that nice mixture of traveling alone interspersed with meeting up with friends.

You can do things when you travel alone that you can't in a group. For one thing you can do what you want to do without negotiation. That alone is worth the price of admission since most of us (especially women) tend to not negotiate as much as cave. You can change your mind on a whim or a tip, totally change what it was you were going to do just because.

Examples - I was walking by a theater in London a few years ago having spent a wonderful morning exploring all the little back streets around Covent Garden and the environs. I had planned to have a nice dinner and go to bed early because I had something (I forget what) lined up for the next morning. The theater was advertising a play by Tom Stoppard, who I adore. I stood out front for a moment, then ducked into the ticket office and got a great deal on a seat for that night. It was a great play (Arcadia) and I had a great time. No one to confer with, I just did it. On a previous trip in Croatia I stayed an extra three nights on the island of Hvar because I was having such a great time. Harder to do with a travel partner (unless they are very like minded).

In any case, for me the best trips are a combination of friends and alone time. I suspect this Hadrian's Wall trip will fall out that way. I'll go over and spend some time alone in Edinburgh or Glasgow, we'll all meet up in Newcastle, head out on our walk (I think we will start the actual trek at Haddon-on-Wall - isn't that a great place name?) and maybe spend a celebratory night or two in London before again scattering on our separate ways.

Maybe I'll have won the lottery by then. If so, I will go to Italy. Or France. Or maybe Germany. If I time it right, I can be there just before grape harvest. Okay, I have to go now. I need to buy a ticket.