Sexier, richer, funnier: 19 ways travel can change your life
Suddenly your accent’s hot.There’s just something about being in a strange land that brings people together.Nothing exposes personality quirks like travel. Spend two weeks together on the road, then decide if it’s time to get married.Cold, hard airport benches or beds with Egyptian cotton sheets. If the journey’s long enough, either will do.That bewildered traveler holding a map upside down in our hometown. We know how she feels.Until Google Translate raises its game, nothing forces language acquisition faster than needing to find a bathroom or talk to that guy/girl across the bar in a foreign country.Passive-aggressive emails won’t get you a better deal on that hand-woven rug.In every country in the world, it’s possible to engage in conversation with completely intelligent yet politically insane people.Because beating the hidden fees, from currency exchanges to booking a hotel, becomes a way of life.Those plane tickets don’t come cheap. Neither does hitting the splurge button in every restaurant.It’s possible to be homesick even in the most beautiful places in the world.The first remark from four out of every five visitors upon seeing Red Square in Moscow for the first time: ‘It looks so much bigger on TV.’When you’re halfway up a pyramid in Tikal, Guatemala, or pounding the pavement in Prague, your opinion of those stylish heels or old army boots tends to change in a hurry.There’s a fine line between bore and raconteur, but that incident when we nearly caused a major diplomatic incident has been keeping us in beers since the middle of October.Sunscreen, people, sunscreen.Pastries in Paris. Dim sum in Hong Kong. Plate lunches in Maui. Keep ’em coming, we’re on vacation!
